


Partners In Crime

by MariskaDownUnder



Category: Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Crossover, F/M, Gen, Homicide, Inspired by Law & Order: SVU, Love Triangles, Special Victims Unit - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-19
Updated: 2020-06-26
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:55:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 33,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24802699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MariskaDownUnder/pseuds/MariskaDownUnder
Summary: Benson and Green end up coming together over a case -- this is definitely going to complicate her already-complicated relationship with Stabler. She finds herself falling for the charm of Green's compassion and openness - a breath of fresh air from the angsty and sometimes down-right mean, Elliot Stabler.
Relationships: Ed Green/Olivia Benson/Elliot Stabler
Kudos: 5





	1. Chapter 1: Just Another Face

"Good morning, handsome," he felt a soft hand on his bare chest that seemed to awake him from his light slumber.

His eyes shot open, realizing that the source of the sound was not a familiar one. He let his vision adjust to the body beside him. She looked sweet and warm but she was very, very naked and he had no recollection how it was that he ended up in such a … _pink_ room.

"Hi…" Eddie Green flashed her his trademark smile, masking his panic and anger with himself.

He promised he would end this bullshit lifestyle. He promised himself he wouldn't continue getting himself so drunk that he would end up waking up in foreign places.

It was time to grow up – at 39, he was growing a little too long in the tooth for this kind of behavior.

"Hi yourself," the woman beside him greeted him, gently resting a hand on his collarbone. She gathered the bed sheet to conceal her nudity and leaned over him without warning and planted a soft, lingering kiss on his lips.

He felt himself momentarily weaken but he knew he had to get out of there and get back to his apartment to get changed for work.

He pulled away from her first.

 _Fuck_ , what was her name? Abbey? Addy? No, no, it was definitely _Maddie_.

"Thanks for the wonderful night…" he said graciously despite not remembering anything. He really hoped he'd remembered protection at the very least.

"We'll have to do this again sometime…" she said, walking her fingers down his neck to his chest before smoothing her hands over his skin. Her hands were warm and small and he had to grab them before she awakened him below.

He smiled at her, feeling an element of guilt of yet another woman he could add to the notch in his belt. It wasn't something he was proud of; he knew it was counterproductive behavior and as much as he tried, it never helped him forget the way that he hoped it would.

"Maybe…" his voice trailed off.

How did he even end up going home with a blond? He didn't even _like_ blonds. Becoming frustrated with himself; Eddie sat up. "I'm really sorry, but I have to get to work…" he found his shirt at the end of the bed and reached for it.

"You don't want me to give you a lil something special to remember me by?" the curly blond-haired woman with the pretty blue eyes asked him. He imagined her pouty lips finding their way beneath the covers, wrapping their way around his hardenin-

 _Don't do it, man_ … he gave himself a stern talking to.

He pushed away her advances, "I'm sorry, I have to start work soon…"

She sat back, dejected. He hated that he hurt her feelings despite the fact that she watched him with nonchalance, as if she didn't mind in the least.

"I guess a big wig on Wall St like you never rests…"

 _What in the world…_ he wondered what bullshit line he fed her the night before. He couldn't remember anything, the only telltale sign of a night of heavy drinking was the thumping headache that pulsated in his temples.

He got up, careful not to expose himself to her – he could be fairly shy in the light of day when the alcohol had lost its influence over him. He had nothing to be shy about, of course, he thought as he looked down at himself as he pulled his briefs on and then searched for his trousers pooled on the floor somewhere.

"Here…" she tossed them at him.

"You're not gonna call me are you?" she asked, still sitting on the edge of the bed, dressed in only a bed-sheet.

He didn't want to let her down but he wasn't a liar. "Look, I'm so sorry," he began, "I was black-out drunk last night, I shouldn't have come home with you… I don't want to hurt your feelings, I'm sure you're a really nice person."

She sighed.

"We didn't have sex," she told him bluntly. "I brought you home because I liked you, we talked, that's all…"

"Oh…" he was surprised with himself – but maybe she had hit the brakes. He was glad for that. "why did we get naked?" he asked.

"I changed my mind before we went through with it… and you said it was fine, we could just talk… so we talked. Thanks for not being a dick about it."

He can't imagine why he would have even stayed. It wasn't really his MO. He was a hit-it and quit-it type guy, he wasn't proud of it, but he certainly wasn't looking for someone to settle down with. That ship had long sailed. He would have rathered live a single, lonely life then end up in similar situations to his past.

"I'm sorry for putting you out…ummm…" he winced, "Maddie?" he asked gingerly, knowing that as soon as the name came out of his mouth that it was the wrong one.

She slumped back on her bed head, slightly exposing her generous cleavage. "Oh my god… just go…" she rolled her eyes and shook her head, disappointed.

He finished buttoning up his shirt and apologized quietly as he navigated his way out of the apartment, mumbling an apology as he went.


	2. Chapter 2: Another Day, Another Crime

Olivia found it hard to look at her partner ever since she had awoken that morning. She found herself staring at him, her eyes lingering over his tall, solid stature, imagining how he would- she gave her head a little shake, it most certainly wasn't the time nor was it the place.

"What's going on with you?" Elliot asked her, "you've been quiet all morning. Bad date last night?"

She rolled her eyes and stared ahead as they drove toward the job in the old battered Ford. "No Elliot," she replied bluntly. She hadn't even had the chance to have a coffee. "Just drive…"

He glanced at her and could tell something was troubling her. They didn't get to be partners for over nine years for him to not know when something was wrong.

"C'mon, what's wrong, what did I do?" he asked with a bit of a laugh.

"Nothing, I just didn't have a good sleep," she replied. It was partially the truth. _He_ had kept her up all night – as a result, she'd woken up irritable and tired and more than anything, frustrated with herself that she wasn't able to let it go.

He was her partner, the only man in her life, the one person she was always able to rely on and it could never be more, she knew that and she wanted so much to let go because it wasn't right and it wasn't fair and she _loved_ Kathy and she loved his children too.

"Okay we need to get you some coffee or an energy drink, bring back that famous Olivia pep."

"Now I _know_ you've got jokes," she replied without cracking a smile. He looked handsome in his suit and tie, almost like he would better belong to a white-collar job … or… owning his own sports team.

Elliot gave up and seemed to disappear back in to his own shell.

She knew she had to pull her herself together, this was obviously going to be a significant job. Cragen had sent them to the call out for a homicide but it was unclear as to why SVU had been called to the case.

Liv got out of the car and headed up the stoop, flashing her badge to the uniforms guarding the door. She left Elliot behind her, she wasn't interested in addressing her own stupidity when there was work to do.

Immediately as she entered the crime scene she knew it was going to be a big one. It was somber. "SVU…" she announced as she walked in. One of the uniforms approached her. "Hi Detective, we've got a DB in the bedroom, multiple GS wounds."

Olivia wondered why the officer was speaking in riddles. She furrowed her brow, "so what's it got to do with SVU?"

"Follow me…" the short, young officer directed her. She followed him in to the bedroom and noticed a throng of officers standing around the closet door. She had no idea what was going on at first until she heard a tiny little voice. It was full of tears and becoming more and more hysterical.

"SVU…" she said quickly, "out of the way, she doesn't need you all standing around intimidating her and for goodness sakes, do something about _that_ …" she nodded toward the body of the woman on the bed.

The child had her knees tucked up beneath her chin. She buried her face in her hands. Olivia noticed her nightdress had bloodstains as well as her hands. She had smears of dried blood on her cheek.

Olivia reached in to her jacket pocket and pulled out a pair of rubber gloves – she was potentially dealing with evidence.

"Hi…" she greeted the little girl, kneeling down on both knees, meeting her level. The child was young, she couldn't have been older than 5 or 6, she thought. Her long golden-brown curls were messy and disheveled and she regretted to think what she had witnessed or experienced. "My name is Olivia, honey…" she informed her. "I'm here to be your friend, okay?"

Liv felt her chest tighten as the little girl glanced up at her briefly, just long enough for Liv to spy her left eye. It was sunken behind a thick shadow of bruising.

After almost a decade in the job, she still never got used to dealing with the child victims, each one of them individually branded her heart – she never forgot a single one of their names.

The honey-skinned child sat before her, trying to look past her to see what was happening with the deceased. Her brown eyes were hollow and lifeless and as Olivia moved closer she saw more blood, almost in her eyes. There were other bruises, lacerations and dried blood visible from a painful looking cut on her lip.

Nope, this kind of thing would never stop affecting her; but that was a good thing, Cragen always assured her.

"You okay?" The familiarity of her partner's voice brought her a little bit of consolation. He was doing his job, now why couldn't she just do hers? She tried to take a deep breath but the gravity of the her responsibility to this child brought a sense of anxiety.

Sometimes cases hurt more than others, some were easier to leave at the precinct and others were not. From her many years as a detective, Liv was used to relying on her hunch—her gut instinct. Her instinct told her loud and clear that this was not going to be one of the easy ones. She knew it when she woke up feeling off – a feeling that she'd been dealing with for years seemed especially painful.

When Cragen handed them the job, she had a sinking in her stomach – at first she thought it was to do with being alone with Elliot, but it was probably her intuition that the new day was going to bring with it a whole tidal of emotion.

Nope, this wasn't just any regular old Jane Doe; this was different. She _wasn't_ okay. "Liv?" He pressed, "Liv, you okay?"

She turned and looked up at his frame towering over hers. They locked eyes for a moment and she knew that had her figured out. His blue eyes bore in to hers, unspoken words; I can take over, you can take the easy road today if you like…

She gave him an uncertain nod before turning away; breaking the connection between them. "I'm fine,". She turned back to the child. There was just so much blood, she thought, and those eyes, the little girl stared blithely back at Liv, as if she wasn't even seeing her. No child should have ever had to have looked so haunted.

She tried to take control. Elliot was good at his job, but sometimes he couldn't be trusted with bedside manner. She knew he would never be cruel to a child victim, but it was an unspoken agreement that she dealt with them for the most part.

 _Come on Olivia, get your shit together… this little one needs you,_ she gave herself a quick pep talk.

"Hey, Briscoe and Green are taking the case…" Elliot told her quietly.

 _Great_ , she thought as she watched her partner leaving her to go and talk to the officers about the case details. She knew she didn't have a lot of time before Briscoe and his partner blazed through; she didn't know much about Green, but she knew Briscoe well enough; she needed to protect this child from their questioning as well as she could.

"Detective Benson?" she turned around, noticing Edison Rhodes – the forensic officer who was in charge of collecting evidence. "Do you have a moment?"

"Uh…" Benson looked back at the little girl before looking back at the officer. "can you give me a few minutes? Or speak to Stabler?"

He smiled and nodded, allowing her the time with her victim. She turned back to the bewildered child. "Okay honey," she said, slowly inching toward her, "would you like to talk to me?" she asked her, "I'm here to help you…"

She could hear the conversations behind her which she tried to block out.

_Victim number one was shot three times in the head, we haven't been able to get victim number two to speak, but it appears she may have been a witness._

Liv held up a finger to the little girl, "I'll be one second okay? Just one. I'm not going to leave you alone." She watched her bury her face in her hands again and she experienced a shift of guilt upon her, she couldn't place it, but she couldn't worry about it in that moment.

She got to her feet and turned to the officers all-standing around chatting. "Somebody wanted Mommy dead…" an officer remarked. She abhorred the witty quips that demonstrated a certain hardness about them all from many years of dealing with crime scenes akin to this.

It all seemed so heartless and sterile.

She wasn't concerned about the other body yet, it was pretty obvious. She was sure based on the blood on the child that she had been close by when the woman was shot. Olivia looked back at the child just a few steps behind her inside the closet space cowering in to the corner covered in a bloody nightgown.

"What's the child's name?" Elliot asked, coming up behind them.

"Molly Prescott," an officer supplied. "Mother's name is Jill"

" _Was_ ," Elliot corrected him and Olivia felt equally annoyed with him.

"Can you guys take your insensitive conversation about this child's mother somewhere else? We still have a responsibility to her." She pushed past them, making no effort not to bump their shoulders with her own.

"I've got this," she told Melinda Warner who she found taking up space where she had just been, trying to talk to Molly Prescott. The child was trembling violently, succumbing to the shock of the situation.

The officers thankfully dispersed and Melinda stood up, not wanting to step on any toes. "Molly, is that your name, sweetie?" she asked her in a soft, deliberate way.

Molly nodded but didn't lift her face from her hands. "You are being such a big, brave girl, Molly," Liv told her, "have you been sitting in the closet all night?"

She nodded again, "monsters," she whispered.


	3. Chapter 3:

Liv inched closer until she was sitting beside the child but was careful not to touch her. She noticed the blood soaking her nightgown – it seemed dry but still red enough to look fresh – a different colour to the tarnished bed sheets of the mother in bed.

Olivia swallowed the bile that she felt rising in the back of her throat as she noticed the hand marks, the bruises, cuts … _a fucking cigarette burn_. The girl looked at the Detective. She said nothing but her eyes pleaded with her to do something to help, to… _fix it_.

"Honey, do you want to tell me how old you are?" she asked her.

"I want my Mommy…" a tiny voice murmured, averting her eyes to the bed where the coroner had arrived to take the victim away. The statement cut through live coldly. It was an expression she had spent most of her life saying interiorly. She knew how much it hurt to have someone who was just never there.

It was _never_ easy doing this job, not this part at least.

"Will Mommy be okay?" Molly asked as she watched the coroner remove her mother's body on to a stretcher. Olivia braced herself for what she knew was about to happen. The body was covered over instantly drawing a reaction that she had been preempting.

"No!" the child squealed, jumping up, ready to run toward the body that was on its way out to the van. Olivia grabbed the little girl before she could move.

"Its okay," she tried to soothe her, but it was futile. It wasn't okay, there was a little girl in her arms fighting for dear life to get to her mother; the corpse. There was _nothing_ fair about it. She sobbed and screamed and punched and wriggled about for what seemed like an extroadinarily long time.

She finally began to melt, sobbing in the Detective's arms, calming down a little.

Detective Stabler stood close by and watched his partner with concern. He didn't know what was going on with her, but this case was about to make it even worse. He could tell already that she was already affected.

He had been working with her for years, it was easy to figure out what made her tick.

He was distracted by the presence of two other detectives. He wasn't overly fond of Lennie Briscoe and his old-skool attitude and sarcastic quips. He didn't really hold too much of an opinion on Eddie Green, but he wasn't interested.

He hated sharing a case with homicide- they were always stepping on each other's toes and no one could seem to just agree on anything.

"Lennie," he nodded at him, calling him by his first name just to irritate the old guy. "Green…"

They exchanged pleasantries. Lennie made a barb at him as usual and Eddie said whatever bland thing he usually did. Green ignored his case explanation. He made his way to Olivia across the room, "you're tampering with evidence, Detective," he informed her as if she was an idiot.

She narrowed her eyes at him when in fact all she wanted to do was to tell him to go fuck himself. She was done with everyone's insensitivity.

He stood tall, towering over the top of them. Molly had somehow attached herself to Olivia, still crying softly against her.

It usually happened that way, she was maternal by nature.

"Vic one was her mother, _Detective_ ," Olivia told him pointedly.

Surprising her, Eddie pulled a pair of gloves from his pocket and adjusted his trousers and squatted down on his haunches. He let his eyes fall over the small, traumatized child.

He winced when she turned her head from Olivia's chest to look at him. _Too close_ … he thought, almost flinching at the child noticing all the blood, the bruises, the cuts.

_How could someone…_

He didn't know how SVU did it. At one point before homicide came up, there had been an opening he interviewed for at SVU but he had been relieved when it went to Tutuola.

He touched Molly's shoulder, "hi angel," he greeted her. She buried her face back in to the crook of Olivia's shoulder.

Olivia and Eddie exchanged troubled looks. "Honey, my friend is here and would like to meet you as well…" she spoke to the child warmly and slowly, not wanting to frighten her or upset her further.

Molly dared to look at Ed again. "My name is Eddie, sweetheart, do you want to tell me your name?" he asked.

Olivia regarded Ed with some credit, he seemed just as affected by the child in the way that she was. She had clocked a moment of pain crossing his own face when he registered the child's injuries.

"Molly," she answered almost inaudibly.

A small smile spread across Eddie's lips. "Olivia and I would like to ask you a couple of important questions, would you be able to do that?" he asked, matching her softness of tone.

Benson and Stabler had often crossed cases with Lenny Briscoe and Eddie Green and usually it was a tense and hostile case. Both Olivia and Eddie were newer to the job than Elliot and Briscoe. Their history was much longer and for some reason, more resentful. Elliot could barely stand the sight of Lenny and for the most part, Ed Green was just packaging.

Olivia was sure it was just a pissing contest between the two grown adult men. Still, she wasn't a fan of having to share a case with homicide. It was annoying to have to liaise with someone each time they wanted to make a move. Too many cooks in the kitchen, or something…

Surprising both Ed and Olivia, Molly turned more toward him, wincing as though she wasn't even aware of her own pain. She nodded slowly.

"Good, good…" Ed smiled at her again sincerely. He held out a latex covered hand to her. She put her tiny hand in his, watching it seem to dwarf in size.

"Molly, do you know how many years old you are?"

Her brown eyes searched his and he found it blisteringly hard to ignore the blood all around her eye that seemed to either be splatter from the shots of the victim or wiped there herself from her own bloodied hands. There was an open wound on her forehead that he knew would have to be seen to pretty quickly.

The bruising was already pretty bad.

Olivia held up three fingers, "are you this many years old?"

Molly shook her head. "What about _this_ many?" she held up an extra finger.

Molly nodded.

"Wow… you're four… such a big, brave girl sitting here and waiting for help."

Eddie wanted to get her out of the bedroom where forensics were moving around, taking samples and ignoring the two detectives and the child in the corner.

Having the same thought, Olivia spoke first, "Molly, we are going to move out of Mommy's room, now, okay?" she told her, "there are special police officers here that need to check on things."

Molly looked at Olivia, almost pained to be told they would have to leave. "Monsters…" she told her, her chestnut eyes filling with tears, distressed at the idea.

She saw Ed let his eyes fall closed for a minute, steeling himself. She had never seen the more human side of the detective.

"The monsters can't hurt you anymore, Molly, Eddie and I will take care of you," she told the child.

Liv got to her feet and Eddie didn't wait to tell the child what the plan was, he lifted her up carefully and carried her out of the room. Molly wrapped her arms around the Detective's neck, comforted in his warmth and friendliness.

Olivia followed behind, noticing a pool of blood from the back of her nightdress. Her shoulder's slumped, hoping what she had suspected wouldn't have been the case.

There was a gentleness about the way Ed carried her, the way he was careful not to make her pain worse. He placed her down gingerly in the living room. He got to his knees in front of the tiny little girl on the couch and held in, as best as he could, his concern for her.

"Detective, Molly has been so brave, she has all these boo-boos and she hasn't cried or complained," Olivia informed Green.

"Wow, you _are_ so brave, aren't you?" he asked rhetorically. His chocolate eyes swept over the child's frame, assessing her injuries. "Did you know that both Olivia and I are police officers?" he asked her.

Molly shook her head.

"Would you like to see my badge, Molly?" When she didn't answer, Eddie took out his black pocketbook from the pocket on the inside of his black suit jacket. He opened it and showed her the gold shield and hoped that if anything, knowing that she was with police officers and protected from the so-called monsters, she would be comforted.

Molly reached for it and took it from him. The two detectives eyed her closely as her tiny fingers traced around the gold star. Her fingers were soiled with dried blood which neither were sure whether or not it was her own. He reminded himself to bag it for evidence.

She seemed to lose interest in the badge and set it down on the knees of her soiled nightgown. "Mommy is sick…"

"Yes, that's right, sweetheart," Olivia nodded solemnly. "Mommy got hurt very badly."

Ed took the little girl's hand a second time and smiled an empathetic, encouraging smile. "I need to ask you a very important question, sweetheart and I need you to try to help me out, okay?" he asked her. She nodded.

"It's very important that you try to remember for me, did you see who hurt your Mommy?"

Molly retracted her hand back and looked back down at his shield on her lap. Olivia and Eddie exchanged knowing looks. He wiped the smooth cocoa skin of his forehead with his sleeve almost as if it were hard for him too.

Finally Molly nodded. "The monster…" she murmured.

"Was the monster a he or a she?" Ed asked, trying not to push her, but knowing that they had a mere few more minutes before she would have to get seen to by an EMT.

"A him."

"Honey did he hurt you too?" Olivia questioned her gently.

"I was bad," she whispered.

"No, no, no…" Eddie said in almost a whisper, "sweetheart, you did _nothing_ wrong, you are _such_ a brave girl."

"Corinne Argon, social services," a voice spoke loudly over the two detectives and the child, startling Molly who jumped at the voice, dropping Ed's pocketbook to the floor.

The red curly-haired woman in her middle age stood over them, looking stern and almost irate. Molly edged closer to Benson as Eddie leaned forward and handed her his badge which she seemed to be guarding on her lap as if someone may take it.

Molly took it from him and held it toward her chest, turning her body inward toward Olivia's chest.

Eddie felt defeated, he knew that the child was _not_ going to want to be handed over to social services.

"Do you want to lower your voice," Ed told her, raising himself to his feet.

"I'm sorry Detectives, your time is up, this child needs to be seen to by an EMT, look at the state of her – what do you think you were doing?"

"We are aware of her the state of her, she's a tiny kid who's been traumatized and we're seeing to her welfare to make her feel comfortable before we shove her off in the back of an ambulance and be done with her," he spoke just as firmly to the woman who seemed to scare the child.

"Seeing to her welfare?" Argon laughed sardonically, "yeah, I'll bet," she rolled her eyes and pushed past him. "Molly, you're going to come with me now, the detectives are going to help find out what happened to your Mom, okay?"

Eddie watched the child wrap herself around Olivia. Both detectives exchanged looks – they were both annoyed with the social services representative and knew that their moment for getting any real information was over, it'd have to wait.

The real issue at hand was the child.

"Molly, honey," Ed began, "these cuts on your face and on your mouth, they look like they really hurt, are they causing you pain?"

She was crying but shook her head emphatically but she still refused to look at anyone. Olivia felt her stomach lurch as she pulled Eddie's badge beneath her.

She was already attached.

"I just want my Mommy!" she sobbed.

"Molly," Corrine Argon began, "I need you to be a big girl-" the social worker was cut off by Molly dropping her arm from Olivia, dropping the pocket book before covering her ears with her tiny hands.

Eddie felt angered all of a sudden. The system was far from perfect and it _always_ failed the child. Unless they were able to find someone to care for her, she would be placed in temporary foster care – as if this ordeal wasn't bad enough.

"One of us could go with her to St Leonards," Ed spoke to Liv.

"That's not a good idea Det-" Argon cut in.

"I don't care," he snapped, raising his voice a little, making Stabler and Briscoe turn around. "We all have to do what is in the best interests of Molly and we have a rapport, so one of us going to tag along, we'll let Molly choose," he finished as if it was not up for discussion.

Liv gave the man who would normally be her nemesis a weak smile. Ed touched Molly's hands over her ears and gently pried them away. She regarded him with a look of defeat that broke his heart.

He tried to block out the feeling that overpowered him, that _too close to home_ feeling that he spent night after night running from. _Memories_ … He sighed heavily but tried to disguise it by clearing his throat.

He wasn't an emotions guy, he didn't talk about matters of the heart – he felt himself shut down whenever someone began digging too deep or asking too many questions.

But this was hard, she was so sweet and he couldn't imagine the kind of heart a person would had to have possessed to harm her. Her golden curls tumbled down her shoulders. Her skin was the color of tea and honey with a light sprinkling of freckles dusted upon her nose and cheeks.

She reminded him of- _don't go there, Ed…._

"Molly, Olivia and I think that it would be a really good idea if we took you to the hospital to get these boo-boos looked at so that you can feel better."

"No, no, I want my Mommy."

"I know, angel," he empathized with her, "but right now the police officers are with your Mommy to see if we can help her, so how about Olivia or myself comes with you with Miss Argon…" he nodded sideways at the social worker who he didn't bother regarding with a single glance.

When she didn't respond, Liv pitched in. "Honey, you've already been so brave, Mommy would be so proud of you, so let's go to the hospital okay? I can come with your or Eddie can come with you, you get to choose…"

The three adults looked at the child expectantly. "You come with me…" she said to Olivia.

Eddie felt a momentary sense of relief until Molly spoke again, "and you," she said speaking directly to him.

"I will stay back here with my friends, Detective Briscoe and Detective Stabler," he pointed at the two men bickering behind him. "we are going to do some work and find out why your Mommy got hurt and I will come and see you later, okay?"

"Don't make idle promises, detective," Corrine Argon remarked.

Eddie narrowed his eyes at her and ignored her rudeness. He couldn't bother himself to say anything. He even saw Olivia shoot her a look of disgust. "Do you think I could have my badge back now? I need to show it to other people…" that wasn't true, he would have to bag it now especially if it had blood on it from the child's fingers.

Molly frowned. "I like it," she replied. He could see that it gave her a sense of comfort. He smiled at her.

She really was a beautiful little girl and for whatever reason, it made it harder to accept that the mother was not the only victim here. This little girl had clearly been beaten and probably worse based on her ravished appearance and the blood that her nightdress seemed to be covered in.

"You know what?" he began sweetly, grazing her cheek with his forefingers, "you can hold on to my badge, Olivia will bring it back to me later, or I can get it when I see you," he gave in.

He felt immediately lighter when she produced a tiny smile despite the fact that she quickly dropped it and brought her finger to her mouth, the cut on her lip must have stung.

She took his badge in both hands and pulled it to her chest.

He knew deep down why she had made such an impact on him, but he could see she had made an impact on Olivia too. It was the least words he had ever heard from Stabler's attractive partner.

They locked eyes for a moment and he immediately felt a sense of comfort – that she knew how he was feeling. That comfort had been hard to come by in recent years, ever since he began dealing with homicide, the job all became a little robotic.

They exchanged small smiles, both feeling as though they had helped the child reach a level of comfort. "Is that okay? That you drop it off later?"

"Sure," she agreed, "I'll drop it off at the precinct tonight. If you're not there I'll leave it with Van Buren."

"Cool," he nodded. He smiled back at Molly. "Thank you for being such a brave girl for me today, Molly… I'll see you soon, okay?"

He stood up straight and regarded the social service worker with a blank stare as he moved past her and back to the detectives.

Detective Benson stood up and took Molly's hand. "Come on, sweetie, we'll head off to the hospital now, okay?" Without waiting for an answer, Corinne led the way out of the house without a word.

Olivia looked down and noticed the little girl hobbling – still no complaints, no whining nothing, it made it easy to forget she was obviously in a lot of pain. Olivia leaned down and scooped the child up. "Is that better?" she asked her.

Molly nodded and rested her head on to the Detective's shoulder.

Outside there was an ambulance waiting. "She seems fine, we can go in my car."

Olivia gave her a confused look. "You were so insistent that we did the wrong thing… she didn't want anyone to come near her which is the only reason Green and I were with her before an EMT, so now that she feels comfortable, she should probably go with me in the ambulance. She's clearly in pain."

"She's not your responsibility Detective," Argon argued.

Olivia looked around. "I'm not going to argue with you. The EMT can look her over and decide. And also, if you think she's fine you need more training." Without a word, Olivia approached the EMT, leaving Corrine trailing behind.


	4. Chapter 4: Coming Up Dry

There were many indicators of abuse, Detective Green thought as he looked around the crime scene for anything significant. He didn't need to be a member of the SVU squad to figure out something awful had happened to Molly as well. It seemed they were too busy arguing over something.

"Will you two give it a rest!" he rolled his eyes impatiently, "give me the details, does this woman have any family around that we can contact?"

Both detectives halted their argument and turned to him. "We have the uniforms trying to locate someone for the girl." Elliot glanced around, "hey, where'd my partner go?"

"Off to the hospital with the kid," Eddie replied.

He watched Elliot sigh with annoyance and couldn't help but to feel irate with the guy. He had a reputation for anger issues, just a brut in a suit, thought Eddie.

"Bleeding heart…" Stabler remarked.

Eddie looked at his own partner and gave him a roll of his eyes.

"Hey, don't you got kids, Stabler?" Green asked, "you'd want them well taken care of if something happened… Maybe let's concentrate on finding out what happened instead of standing around having a pissing contest…"

Olivia felt her phone vibrating in her pocket. She was on the cusp of nodding off when a doctor entered the cubicle where she had been by Molly's side almost the entire night.

She pulled her cell out of her pocket and glanced at it. It was Elliot and she wasn't really in any mood to deal with him.

"Still here, Detective?"

She gave the female physician a weak smile and a nod. "Yeah… I promised I wouldn't leave her,"

The doctor returned her smile and picked up Molly's chart. "You're good at your job, detective and it's nice that this little one has someone really looking out for her… I hope you can find who did this and someone for to look after her."

The time was ticking on how it was before she ended up a ward of the state and despite Olivia knowing that she wouldn't be able to do much about the outcome, she felt invested.

She remembered the times that she danced the line of becoming a ward of the state with her mentally absent mother who had serious problems with substance abuse.

For all of her mother's shortcomings, Olivia always felt pity for her. Her mother always came through at the eleventh hour, saving her from a life in the foster care system.

She glanced down at a sleeping Molly and felt an overwhelming sense of responsibility toward her. "Me too…" she murmured.

The child had to be sedated for the doctors to examine her – she became far too distressed. She screamed ceaselessly for a good hour when they'd arrived until she almost passed out. It was heartbreaking to watch and Liv had to stop herself from becoming emotional.

Her phone rang again as the doctor put down the clipboard. "I'll leave you with it," she said kindly and left her with the child.

Olivia picked up the phone; it was Cragen.

"Hi Captain…" she answered, awaiting a grilling over where she was.

"Olivia, where are you? Elliot told me you went to the hospital but you won't pick up his calls."

"Oh," she mocked the sound of surprise. "I missed it, I was just speaking with the doctor. The social worker is a bulldog, I don't want to leave this kid's side because we'll miss our chance to question her," she explained.

"Are you okay? Elliot was worried about you…" his voice trailed off.

Elliot cared only when it suited himself, she thought, trying to shake off her irritation. "How would Elliot have had time to worry?" she asked, "he was busy arguing with Lennie the whole time, it's a wonder he spent any time actually investigating."

She knew it was wrong; She and her partner never tattled on one another, but he was in the wrong too. His concern for her was misplaced and quite frankly, annoying.

"You're off the clock in an hour, Liv, go home, have a good rest…" he advised her.

"I'm going to stick around," she said to him, "I have a good rapport with the girl, social services were awful, she needs someone there when she wakes up."

"Liv…" Cragen began regretfully, "it's not your job to save everyone," he told her. They had been through it in the past – even he in his day had been caught up in the emotions of a case. He knew since her mother had recently passed she took things a little more to heart so he had been granting her a little bit of leeway.

"I know, I'm not trying to save her, I'm trying to do my job and right now my duty of care is with the child – just like it would be with any other abuse case."

"Okay, but if you start drowning, detective, you need to ask for a life line," he finished, knowing that giving her a lecture wasn't going to help the situation.

"I will, I promise, but I'm okay," she replied coolly. She appreciated that the Captain always looked out for her, especially since…. Well – it would have been nicer if they all got off her back and trusted her to do her job. "Actually, you could do me one solid," she said quickly before they hung up. "Ed Green was going to follow up on a possible familial lead, but I don't have his number, could you look it up and send it to me?"

She hung up and looked over the child. Fresh bruises had begun to bloom across the plains of her face as the day fell in to late afternoon. Dressed in the smallest hospital gown they could find, Molly's clothes had been bagged as evidence. Beneath her clothes were more cigarette burns, more lacerations, more bruises, more handprints – and still more.

There were times that assigned cases made her physically sick. For the most part, she managed to keep it in – to tough it out, not wanting the squad to think she was an emotional woman who didn't belong there. She would get home and almost as if she'd never had any control, she would bring up the contents of her stomach, sometimes missing the mark.

Sometimes she wondered why she was still in SUV, sometimes it got on top of her, but mostly she wanted to be the woman who would stand up for other women; other _victims_. Her squad counterparts were great but as it stood the NYPD was a glorified boys club and a females touch meant that her intuition could be sharper, her empathy was stronger and she would read the tiny, insignificant clues that other male officers were quick to look past or entirely miss.

Molly was receiving intravenous fluids and had some stitches on the abrasion above her eye. The doctor had ordered x-rays which evidenced three cracked ribs that the doctor didn't believe was a recent injury.

And then there was the internal damage that made Olivia want to dry-heave to think about.

Green sat at his desk going over the paper work of the crime scene over and over again. They still came up empty.

He hoped that they would know more as soon as Molly began to share details, but right now the social worker had prevented the detectives from asking her any questions, but he was sensitive to that – he didn't want to make the little girl's trauma any worse.

So far the details were nothing short of a mystery. There was no murder weapon to be found, the DNA hadn't been returned yet nor any rape-kit returns, no witnesses, no neighbours who were willing to talk – nothing.

Nobody knew much about the family either. And far worse than all of that, Green thought as he stroked his neatly kempt goatee, no extended family that could be traced down.

There had clearly been a struggle as skin and hair fibers had been found beneath Jill Prescot's nails as well as odd bruises on her arms and legs; cigarette burns and ligature marks that perhaps were from a time earlier when the victim was shot.

The only hunch they had to go off was the fact that there were no signs of forced entry which meant that they had to look close to home – at everybody that Jill Prescott knew.

His phone buzzed as he took a sip of his luke-warm coffee, staring in to the air. It was from an unknown number. "Hi Ed, its Olivia. I'm still at the hospital. How'd you guys do? Got anything yet?"

He put the phone down, thinking about all of the evidence that they had taken from the scene of the crime. He rubbed his throbbing temples. He picked the phone back up, "nothing solid, how's Molly? Got any prelim med reports?" he wondered; he wanted so much to know that she was okay, that she hadn't been assaulted sexually.

_What kind of a sick minded fuck…_

He didn't have to think too far back to answer his own question though; just two weeks ago, he and Briscoe had visited a dead on arrival at the garbage dump – a mother of four who's body was dismembered and strewn around the pit in a sick game of hide-and-seek, complete with clues.

There was no rhyme or reason to the single mother's murder – just a case of the wrong place at the wrong time, leaving her eldest 13 year old in charge while she went to the Bodega a block and a half up to buy some formula.

At least the children in that case had each other and an aunt who very willingly took them on without question.

At this point, Molly Prescott was on her own.

Disrupting his thoughts, Lennie emerged from Anita's office. "Get some sleep, Sherlock," he quipped, "you look like you're about to nod off.

"I will, just waiting for Benson to drop my shield back," he lied.

"You don't need to wait, Eddie, she can leave it in the mailbox, go home, get some rest."

Briscoe was a good guy, he had a lot of valuable experience behind him and had kindly showed him the ropes without ever displaying any signs of frustration with him.

Eddie looked up at his partner's weathered face and silver streaked hair and smiled. "I'll be okay," he assured him.

"Don't let this one get to you, Eddie, I've told you before…"

Eddie scoffed and gave a chuckle as if he had no idea what Briscoe was getting at. "There you go…" he rolled his eyes good-naturedly, "I'll see you in the morning Lennie, say hi to your wife for me."

"You know _exactly_ what I mean, now good _night_ Detective," he grabbed his jacket and made his way out.

Eddie just gave him a wave. He watched the lights go out in Lieutenant Van Bruen's office. He waited for her to emerge. They exchanged goodnights. Eddie laid his head on his arms on the desktop until he heard his phone buzz again.

"Not a report as such but I was present during examination. Pretty brutal. I'm leaving the hospital now and on my way to drop your badge off, I'll fill you in when I get there," her text read.


	5. Chapter 5: Findings

Olivia had stayed with Molly after she came-to from her sedation. She waited for her to once again fall asleep. She held the little girl's hand and bargained with her as the doctors strapped her chest from the rib fractures and she had been informed that the child had required internal stitches while under sedation.

She had encouraged the little girl's bravery but wasn't sure that if the tables were turned if she would have been so brave. She marveled at Molly's resilience as the social worker explained that her mother had passed.

Molly remained quiet and sullen and wouldn't let Olivia out of her sight after that. There was a certain coldness – or maybe hardness from Argon which she found to be difficult to swallow. She couldn't understand where her compassion was when dealing with the little girl.

After Corrine Argon left, Olivia had implored the help of the doctor to find reasons to keep Molly in the hospital to buy her enough time to find family or a temporary place for the child to stay that wasn't the system. She knew what it was like to be in temporary foster care, there wasn't room for childhood trauma, just survival.

Feeling stressed and upset, Liv set out on the main street and grabbed a cab back to the 13th Precinct with Ed's badge that she had maintained in a ziplock back in case it required testing.

She was going through all the motions of the case in her head; the next step – the information that she was going to have to go through that hopefully Eddie would already have a copy of for her. She needed to choose her questions for Molly wisely and figure out who was left to question.

Each time she tried to map out a plan of attack, Molly's face kept coming back to her and she couldn't seem to stop thinking about her. She thought of the way her face crumpled with sadness when she learned of her mother's death. She thought about how brave she had been when the doctors took her blood and strapped her chest.

"Miss, this is your destination?" the cab driver interrupted her reverie. She reached in to the pocket of her trench coat and passed him some money to the front.

She thanked him and got out on to the stoop. She had planned to just drop Ed's shield in to the mailbox, but since she had texted him and he seemed genuinely interested in Molly's wellbeing, she decided to go up.

"I'm here," she texted him, "can you buzz me up?"

A few moments later she heard the fuzz of intercom before a beep. She heard the glass door unlocking. She pushed it open and let herself up the stairs to the second level.

She didn't feel particularly like reliving the day out loud to anyone as it was growing close to midnight and she had a splitting tension headache that radiated from her neck in to her temples. She really just wanted to get home and relax in bed with maybe a little help from Tennessee Jack.

She hated investigations like this one, sometimes it was easier when her victims didn't breathe; at least then they weren't staring her in the face with the eyes that spoke of their traumas and the brutality that they had been dealt.

She had multiple missed calls from Elliot but couldn't bring herself to call him back.

She had purposely avoided his texts but another popped up as she was entering the homicide office. She opened it, "Liv, I'm really worried about you, check in with me, K? I'm going home to Kathy and I don't start til 11 but I'll catch up with you. Lennie and I gave Ed some busy work so he should stay off your back."

It must have been nice to be Elliot, to have his cake and get to eat it too, she thought bitterly. How nice it must have been to have the friendship and love of his partner and to go home and have the love and loyalty of his wife and the adoration of his three children. She didn't have such respite waiting for her when she walked in the door to alleviate the horrors of the day.

 _Fuck_ you, Elliot, she thought.

But, she guessed, that was part of the problem.

Eddie looked up from under the dull glow of the desk lamp. The office was almost dark. He watched her find him after looking around in the shadows for a moment.

Olivia found herself smoothing down her shoulder-length hair a little self consciously when he got up to turn a light on. It flickered a few times before igniting a brightness that made him wince to adjust his vision.

She took her gun belt off – it was giving her a sore lower back. She placed it down gently on the vacant desk across from where he sat back down.

"Hey…" he greeted her with a smile, looking weary.

"Hi Detective," she replied, taking a seat on the swivel chair across from him.

The tall, broad-shouldered detective sat before her coolly watching her with almost a look of concern.

Olivia had never really considered Ed Green as good-looking or bad-looking, or anything looking – and in her line of work she was much too busy to spend time studying his looks for a personal appraisal. "What's the damage so far?" she asked, referring to the case.

He gave a shrug. He picked up a pen and leaned back in to his chair and pressed it to his lips thoughtfully. She could see now outside of work hours that he was a good-looking, kind person. He, like herself and probably Elliot too, was incredibly passionate about his job, putting in the long hours.

If he didn't, he wouldn't have been around at midnight trying to make heads or tails of something that no one had any leads on. "I dunno really…" he sighed, "no clues yet until we have the lap reports, I suppose."

"Nothing at all?" Liv pushed, "did you interview all of the neighbors in the building? Do a thorough search?"

He cracked a smile. "C'mon, are you seriously asking me that? Are you second-guessing my skills, Detective?" he asked her good-naturedly.

"Yeah, yeah, I know… sorry, I'm just frustrated. There's gotta be someone who knows this woman and this child – a family member, _something_."

"It's okay," he said, "I get it… but if it helps assure you, I've been through the paperwork dozens of times, I've contacted anyone who might know anything, but it all comes up dry…" his voice trailed off as he glanced at her again. She looked as though she had had enough and was spent.

"What about Molly?" he asked, letting his eyes linger over her delicate features. Benson had always been hot, it was a well-known fact, a lot of detectives knew about her, female detectives weren't as common as men and if anything, she was unfairly known purely for how attractive she was.

He had never really given her too much credit for just how gorgeous she was. Her deep brown eyes bore in to his own as if they were both about to find answers.

"Oh yeah," she remarked as if she suddenly remembered something. She fished in to her pocket and pulled out his shield with his badge and ID. She placed it on his desk. "I don't know if we should send it for testing, but I bagged it in case. Might get Melinda to swab it at the very least and you'll probably want to clean it."

"Thanks for that…"

"Thought I was going to have to pry it out of her hands," Liv joked with a hint of a spark. "She sat there studying your ID, goodness why," she winked, jibing him.

Ed chuckled, happy to see her finally smile, releasing some tension from her face. "Thanks for giving that to her, it actually brought her some comfort. She did ask after you once or twice, remembered your name and everything," she added.

"I'm kinda hard to forget, Detective," he joked with a little flash of his kind smile. "Probably my good looks and irresistible charm…" he add puffing his chest out a little.

The both laughed light-heartedly at his silliness. It felt good – for both of them, especially after the intensity of the day.

"Yeah, must be that," Benson played along. "But … in terms of how she's doing," she turned serious again and Eddie saw the tension cover her again, like a cloud overhanging her. "The social worker was a ball breaker, Molly began opening up a little, talking a little more, you know?" she explained.

Ed nodded, listening.

"And then that idiot comes in and tells her Mommy is dead," Olivia shook her head with anger, recounting what had happened in her head. "Just like that, you know?" she looked at Green, realizing she was getting worked up. "No compassion about her, just like, 'hey kid, your Mommy, same one you've been crying for all night, she's not coming, she's dead!'" Liv sighed, "Dead!" she exclaimed again as if he didn't get the point.

Green could immediately tell that Olivia was getting emotional. She was holding it back, trying to save face. He wanted to tell her it was okay that she felt upset; that he felt upset too that she wasn't alone in feeling a little out of depth with his case. He didn't though, he wasn't very good at things like that.

"That must have been awful," he listened to her, "how did she take it?"

Benson averted her eyes from his and leaned back in the chair as if it was her own. "With grace, bravery… and who even knows if she's able to fully grasp the concept of death anyway?" she asked rhetorically. "The social worker just marched her ass on out, probably off to crush another child's life."

Ed was able to smile momentary at her bitter remark.

"She didn't even bother herself to explain the full gravity of the situation, to try to reason with Molly or help her distinguish what that would mean going forward – that bitch has a lot to answer for, I'm going to register a complaint when this is all over."

Eddie felt selfishly glad that he wasn't the one who went along, he wasn't sure he would have dealt with it halfway as well as Olivia. "And what was the extent of her injuries?" he asked.

"Injuries?" Olivia asked with a sardonic laugh that was clearly out of place. "That's a kind word for it, Ed," she replied. He already regretted asking from the way in which she wouldn't even look at his face.

"Well… where do I start? They had to sedate her because we all agreed that it would be too traumatic to have to endure the forensic exam, so I suppose that was a blessing." Olivia leaned back in the chair and rubbed her aching neck, "she had cigarette burns, a small facture in her cheekbone, two fractured ribs which may or may not be from _this_ incident, bruises, hand marks, cuts, she required internal stitches, pelvic bruising, the cut on her forehead needed a couple of stitches too… and other minor surface injuries on top of being really _fucking_ scared."

He didn't know what to say. He was glad for homicide. He couldn't do it, there was no way he could ever work SVU – this was just _one_ case and already he found it hard to breathe with the details he had just been given.

"That's…." he paused and shook his head, not even wanting to imagine it, "I don't even know what to say…" he replied resolutely.

"We should have the lab reports back in the morning. Seems pretty horrific." She ran her fingers through her hair and sighed.

"And what about you, are you doing okay?"

"Yeah, I'm good," she replied as if it were just the standard, reflex of an answer. "I guess it's just been a long day, I'm tired, but I won't sleep well with this kind of an active case."

He hated himself for the flicker of impurity that crossed his mind as he watched her go back to massaging her own neck again.

He and Olivia had a lot more in common than they realized; he was thirty-nine and she was thirty-seven. They were both single and in their own words, "married to the job", they both had a habit of taking their cases personally and stopping at nothing to resolve them.

They both hated more than anything, going home to empty apartments after work. They both hated the silence of their hallways late at night and going to sleep with the faces of victims and criminals on their minds – or worse, trying to wrestle their own demons from the past.

Ed shut all the thoughts down of a night with alcohol and women and Olivia… well, she just managed as best as she could.

Nope, Eddie didn't feel much like going home alone yet and he was not about to end up in the bind that he was in when he woke up that morning.

_Maddie… you idiot…_

"I know its getting late, but… let's go get a drink to wind down, you look like you could use one and quite frankly," he told her, "so could I…"

Olivia wasn't really a drinker, especially not after when her relationship with her mother was completely obliterated by alcohol, but she didn't feel much like going home with her thoughts either and she knew she wouldn't be able to sleep anyway.

"Alright," she agreed, "just one drink."

Ed was already up out of his chair. He grabbed his trench coat and put it on and shoved the ziplocked pocketbook and put it in his pocket just in case. He waited for Olivia patiently to strap her gun back on to her waist and adjust her own coat.

She started to head out the door while he turned off all the lights and made sure everything was locked.


	6. Chapter 6: Winding Down

They stepped out on to the pavement of the unusually empty streets. There was something that felt comforting about being alone with him, Olivia thought.

There was a sweet, traditional air of protection about him, even as they walked along the side-walk, he stayed closest to the road, not like there were any cars out, but it was a nice chivalrous gesture that she wasn't really used to.

Detective Benson was a woman of equality, she didn't like being spoken down to or treated like the lesser sex and considered herself to be something of a feminist, but take work away from the equation and she didn't mind playing the traditional gender roles… For the most part, anyway – not a fact that she would have readily admitted to anyone, especially not Stabler.

"Don't let it get to you…k? It ain't worth it, in a few weeks we'll be working on another crime, and then after that, another one… don't drown yourself in it." Ed advised in response to the silence between them.

He pointed toward the left side of the corner they stood at. He was aware that his advice was also for himself.

"What, you wanna start calling yourself Cragen while you're at it?" She quipped with a bit of a laugh.

Eddie laughed too, "I know, I know… Anita's always telling me the same… but there's something to it. If we got wrapped up in every single case we were assigned to, we'd go insane, right?"

Olivia jammed her cold hands in to her pockets and sighed. "I know Eddie…"

He smiled to himself, it was the first time she'd ever shortened his name, the way his friends did. "But this isn't every other case… this little girl was brutalized – I don't see something to this extent very often, thank goodness and on top of that watched someone shoot her very own mother in the head, a bunch of times."

With that depressing thought, Ed fell silent. They both became enveloped in their own thoughts and no words were spoken. The only sound for the rest of the way to the bar that Ed was leading her to was the sound of the ground crunching beneath their shoes.

He pushed open the door for Olivia who stepped in to the bar first. She waited for him as they both approached the bar. The tender smiled at Ed, "Hey man! How you doing? Bit late for you tonight?"

Olivia observed that they were obviously on familiar terms. She wondered how many times Ed came here during the week. The bartender smiled at Olivia politely. She had no energy in her for small talk or politeness, it just wasn't the day.

"This is my friend Mark, Mark this is my colleague, Detective Olivia Benson." Eddie introduced them. Olivia found herself shaking the bartender's hand, starting to feel like the drink was a bad idea.

"So what can I get you both?" He asked, "You both look like you need something a bit stiff." He chuckled, nudging Ed, proud of his stupid little joke. Olivia couldn't even restrain herself, she rolled her eyes.

Eddie made a face that showed the barman that it wasn't appropriate but never-the-less ignored it. "Gin and tonic, how about you, Liv?" He asked her, using the name that he so often heard Elliot refer to her as.

"Scotch… neat." She replied, "Thanks."

She went to get some cash from her pocket but Eddie stopped her, "No, this is my treat… You drew the short straw on going to the hospital… so…"

"I didn't mind." She shot back, "I don't see it as a short straw."

"Well I do." He insisted, handing over a tenner to Mark, the bald, large sleazy bartender.

Once Mark handed them their drinks, he seemed to linger and Eddie wasn't in the mood to hear his bullshit chatter. "Come on, let's go get a booth…" He told Olivia, realizing that she was also in no mood to put up with him.

"So… this is your usual haunt then?" Olivia questioned him, taking a sip of her drink.

"Yeah… I live about 3 blocks further down, sometimes I just come in after work and hang out for a while and drown away the day." He joked. Even though it came across as a joke, Olivia was pretty sure he was serious.

She stared at her drink for a few moments before turning to him, "So, if you could take a wild guess—what do you think this case is about?" She questioned him.

"Scorned ex-lover helping himself to the child as well." He replied simply as if he'd already thought about it.

"Maybe." She shrugged, "A scorned ex-lover wouldn't brutally molest a child" She replied, "I think Mommy's boyfriend has been doing this for a long time… and she found out, maybe threatened to go to the police…"

Eddie shrugged. "Could be. There were _some_ signs of a struggle, but there are no signs of a weapon anywhere, so who knows? You shoulda heard Lenny and Elliot arguing for hours over it."

Olivia rolled her eyes. "I've had about enough of that, obviously no one likes getting their toes trodden on, especially not Elliot, but we are working together to get justice for Molly, they need to suck up their bullshit."

"I agree." Ed smiled, looking in to her eyes. She seemed momentarily self-conscious of the way he stared, lingering over her. "It's a nice change working with someone who has some heart about the job." He complimented her, making her feel a little awkward.

"Okay—stop, why do I feel like I'm suddenly on a date?" She questioned him, trying to seem a little amused though she was feeling as though he was slightly putting the moves on. She cut the mood, not liking the vulnerability that was just being flung around. That wasn't her style, she wasn't sure how to even _be_ vulnerable after having her softness rebuked during a moment of weakness.

He raised his eyebrows, his defences rising. "What are you talking about? This ain't a date, you had a rough night, so did I, I'm trying to be _friendly_ , that's all. We're going to have to work together for the next few weeks, detective, I'm _trying_ to build a rapport," he was offended at the way she had immediately assumed a sketchy motive for wanting some company.

She instantly felt a little silly and embarrassed for jumping the gun. "Yeah, look, I'm sorry," she apologized, resting her forehead on her hand, propped up by her elbow at the table. "You're right, this is probably just getting to me."

"No sweat." He relaxed his back against the leather of the booth. He rested his hands on the table and looked up at the ceiling, closing his eyes just for a second. He needed to clear his mind, maybe there was something to it, maybe he _did_ want to be alone with her. It'd been far too long since he'd been in the company of a beautiful woman who didn't immediately fall for his stupid bullshit conversation.

He got the sense that Olivia wasn't the same kind of women that he picked up in bars and hotels. He wasn't disrespectful to women, ever, that wasn't his style. He was always the gentlemen, but Olivia was that something extra; not the kind of woman you'd sleep with and then move on from in the early hours of the morning.

He didn't want to assume things about her, but he felt as though a smash and dash type-of-thing would be a knock to her ego and she would internalize it, giving her extra tools to strengthen the wall that he could feel between her and just about anyone.

The little girl, Molly, she brought out the part of her that she kept hidden and perhaps that's why he suddenly felt a warmth toward her.

He really wasn't one to piss about with countless dumb broads for longer than a night – maybe two if he was feeling extra lonely, but he had been on far too many pointless dates for his liking—and as always, work got in the way. This was just ... _nice._ He didn't have to even say very much to know that she understood him.

"Sometimes I wonder what must go through a guy's head to make him commit an act like rape, and as if that's not bad enough... to lay a hand on a little girl—I can't..." He shook his head.

"Eddie, I've learned in this job that its best not to try to understand because its impossible to be able to fathom it and if you can then you probably need to take a look at yourself," she explained.

"You're right. Only a psychopath or some kind of sicko could justify something so cruel and perverse," he replied.

"Do you have kids?" Olivia asked him point-blank, realizing she had no idea about his home life after all these years. She had earlier made an assumption that he was hitting on her, but for all she knew he could have had a girlfriend – or a wife.

Ed Green shook his head. He didn't want to explain himself, but found the words falling out of his mouth. "Well... one. A little girl," he blurted out and covered his own mouth as if he were in shock. He wasn't fast enough to grab the pointed edges of his words and place them back to where they came – a deep dark hollowed out part of his heart that he kept for only himself.

She cocked her head to the side, as if she didn't quite understand. She gave him a funny look.

"She would be seven years old now." He tried again, releasing the words slowly and steadily and more than anything; awkwardly.

It was a part of his past that he had never shared with any of his colleagues, or really anyone outside of his immediate family.

"Sadie," he added as if it explained everything, taking a long sip of his drink before setting it back on the table.

He dared to glance at the gorgeous detective sitting across from him, she said nothing. Her silence spurred him on even more. "Her name was Sadie," he finished.

Olivia felt herself tensing. "You don't see her?" she wondered gently, although she was pretty sure that it wasn't because he had a choice in the matter.

She noticed Ed becoming uncomfortable. He shifted his weight in the booth and looked in to his drink for answers. "Nope. She had health complications. She was almost four when she..." he couldn't say the words, they had never, ever come easy to speak out loud, as if making it real.

"Anyway..." He cleared his throat and breathed in deeply, breaking his intensity and turning back to Olivia, "I guess in my day-to-day work, we don't deal with child victims. They are your area of expertise, so... when it's shoved in my face, it gets to me."

"It _always_ gets to me," she commiserated with him. "It never gets easy, Eddie." She had enough sense to drop the subject of his daughter. She was surprised and felt rotten that she wasn't able to offer him some kind of comfort. She had no problem offering a squeeze of a hand to a victim, a hug, a word of comfort – but to the people she encountered away from work, she was awkward always missed the timing.

She watched him gulp down the rest of his drink, feeling awful for him.

"Mark, another Scotch over here, man!" he called out to the bartender. He looked at Olivia, "You want another?"

"No, I'm good thanks," she shook her head. "Make it a double!" he called back to the bartender, watching him take an empty glass ready to prepare the drink.

Ed sat back down.

"Double scotch? That's a bit heavy... you got an early morning detective." Benson reminded him casually, casually but in a way that was almost telling him what to do.

"Thanks for the advice." He replied, his tone telling her that he wanted her to shut up.

"In the morning, I plan to go through every name and address in Prescott's black book and dial every single number until I find someone who is willing to talk to me."

"Good move." Olivia replied. "I promised Molly I'll visit her first thing in the morning, Cragen will probably have my ass, but... I can't break a promise to that little girl."

Ed gave a light-hearted chuckle and leaned his head back again, shaking his head.

"What are you laughing at? Is this funny to you?" She asked him with a little irritation. Her eyes were accusing, and more annoyed she was that he wasn't even looking at her.

"Isn't it lame," He began, "that I suggested we go wind down and have a drink and here we are sitting here getting all worked up about work?" He asked her, looking up to peer at her through his weary, heavy eyes.

"Remember that word... how you say..." he played, " _Fun_?"

Olivia couldn't help but to smile. He looked pretty damn cute with his goofy smile and his silly joke. They were briefly interrupted with Mark bringing Eddie's drink.

"Oh _please_ , I don't even remember what that word means."

"Me either..." He replied, rubbing his eyes with his large hands. He yawned and started on his new drink. "Maybe we need an outlet..."

"Yeah, one that isn't drinking after work," she suggested. Ed knew she was talking more about his habits than hers.

He smiled, "isn't it the police officer's cliché to be a functioning alcoholic?" he joked.

She was a little concerned and started putting together all of the little details of Ed's life that she had colored the lines of. "Not unless you want to be 53 years old with kids that resent your existence for always choosing to love the sauce over them."

Ed gave a sardonic laugh. "Well… my kid isn't around and if she was, I wouldn't be working 16 hour days and bar hopping of a night," he replied candidly.

Olivia said nothing. She thought of her mother; the last time she saw her, the argument they had. Olivia had called her a drunk and told her she'd had enough of her bullshit. She had been furious, full of rage and spite and resentment. She still felt the heat of the anger that morning, but above all else, she wanted to apologize and take back everything her mother said.

The scotch was making her a little warm. She wriggled out of her coat and sat it beside her on the booth. Ed tried not to let his eyes linger over her bare, toned arms or her smooth, straight collar bones that held up her grey-tank. She ignored his staring; she was pretty used to it, working in a male-dominated environment.

And also? She didn't _really_ mind. It had been a hell of a long time since a good looking man had given her any attention at all. It was nothing, just a little tiny boost of esteem.

Eddie finally drew his eyes away from her. "I like going for a drink." He defended himself, obviously realizing she may have taken his comments a little seriously, "and it's not excessive, I would never jeopardize my cases."

"I wasn't suggesting that." Olivia replied, feeling a little bad. She took a mouthful of her own drink. "I don't make judgments on other people's vice's, Ed…" she let her voice trail off. She had been sincere. She wasn't a judgmental person; her job didn't allow for it.

"So... before you got in to this job, what'd you do for fun?" Ed asked her, changing the subject again, wanting to steer away from seriousness.

Olivia relaxed and glanced at him, thinking about it for a moment. She shrugged, "Hang out with girlfriends, watch movies, read..." She smiled, "I don't think I was all that interesting to begin with."

Detective Green laughed with her, "Girl, I never suspected you to be a homebody..."

"It's always the ones you least expect," she joked. She finished her drink and set it aside. She felt a lot more relaxed with him. He seemed like a nice guy, genuine at least. She felt in the past maybe she had misjudged him. "What about you?"

Ed laughed. "Believe it or not, but I like to consider myself as something of an artist."

It was Olivia's turn to laugh. "For real? What kind of art?" She couldn't picture him in the silence of his own living space, getting messy with paints and brushes.

He shrugged, "Drawing, painting... I also used to belong to a bowling league."

She laughed harder.

"I don't believe you for a second... Those hobbies are so... " she searched for the right word.

"Ill-fitting for a homicide detective does?" he supplied with a chuckle.

She didn't answer him. "I need another drink..." she announced with a smile.

Before she had the chance to protest, Ed was making his way to the bar to pay for the drink that Mark had delivered as well as getting her a second.

He placed the neat Scotch down in front of her on a coaster and set down a bowl of peanuts that Mark had given him on the house. "Here..."

"Thanks, Ed..."

They chatted for awhile longer, feeling the ease of their company as they progressed in to the early hours of the morning. It felt good to laugh, to relax, and to feel like someone else was enjoying her company.

"Guys, I'm closing in ten minutes, sorry..." Mark called out to them,

interrupting their loud laughter. They were making fun of their dearly loved colleagues. Ed did a _great_ impression of Briscoe.

"Come on..." Olivia touched his arm with her warm soft hand, "We should get going, it's almost 2... I need to be able to wake up in the morning."

Ed glanced at the hand on upon his and smiled. "Yeah, come on... we'll order you a cab..."

He waited for her to get up and eased out of the booth.

They walked down the road, seeing if there were any cabs that could be flagged down. They gave up half way to his apartment.

"I'll just call one." He told her, grabbing his phone. He went through his contacts and gave the cab company his address. He hung up and turned to her. "Come on, let's go... we cab wait out on my stoop."

Olivia said nothing and followed him down the sidewalk toward his apartment.

"You wanna come with me before work to see Molly?" She asked him after they arrived at his apartment block, "I am going to leave around 8... and I'll stay longer citing questioning..."

Eddie smiled at her, "Sure... sounds good. I'll let Lenny know in the morning Could be good for him and Elliot to get a little used to one another..." _Wouldn't hurt us neither..._ he thought, smiling at the woman who stood a good 6inches shorter than he was.

She laughed. "That, or they'll be the next homicide we'll be investigating."

She took a seat on the step and after a few moments Ed joined her. "How you feeling? Any better than earlier?" He asked her.

She nodded, "Yeah... a lot, thanks for the drinks. Maybe I'm just a little drunk."

"Sometimes it ain't so bad to let your hair down... Maybe we should try some other form of relaxation next time...bowling." he joked.

"Yeah sure, bowling... so you can whip my ass and make an idiot of me?" she asked, nudging his arm with hers good-naturedly.

"Never." He flashed her a smile, "I'm a gentleman. I'd go easy on you."

She chuckled as the cab pulled up to the stoop. They both stood up. Ed Green opened the car door for her. She smiled at him, hesitating for the moment. _Do I hug him? Kiss his cheek? Thank him once more?_ She could hardly remember socially adequate behaviours.

"Thanks Eddie, for everything." She said finally, feeling a little embarrassed.

She felt his hand on her waist. She bore him another glance and he leaned over and gave her a hug, clearly having the same battle in his own head.

"You're welcome... Thank you too, for the company... was nice to talk."

She said nothing in reply and got in to the car and clipped the safety belt in.

Ed closed the car door. She opened up the window. "Hey Eddie?"

"Yeah?" he asked just as he was about to turn in to his own apartment block.

"I'm really sorry about your daughter, about Sadie," she said sincerely. "I bet she was the most beautiful thing in the world."

He stared back at her for a moment, unsure of whether or not he should be angry that she felt it was her right to bring up his daughter again, or if he should have been appreciative.

He went with the latter; after all it wasn't her fault. He _did_ bring it up. "She really, really was... Thanks Liv... Goodnight."

"Goodnight."


	7. Chapter 7: The Morning After

Olivia Benson reached for her phone that was ringing by her bedside. She was buried face-first in to her pillow, cocooned within the safety of her feathered duvet.

She tried at first to ignore the shrill tone, but it wasn't going away.

Without lifting her head, she felt around on the bedside table until her hand fell upon the old-fashioned flip-phone issued by the NYPD. She muffled a groan and maneuvered it open with her thumb and pressed it against her ear.

"Benson…" she mumbled, knowing that it was going to be Elliot trying to find out what happened to her the night before.

"Uh…hi…" came the low, bass-y voice of someone who was almost unfamiliar. At least at this hour; "Sorry to call so early…"

Intrigued, she lifted her head up and peeled her body of lead away from the comfort of the fancy pants mattress she'd bought months ago. Should have kept the old one, she thought fleetingly, at least it would have been easier to get out of bed.

"Who's this?" She asked with a yawn, checking to see that it was just after 7am.

Just enough time to shower and leave.

"Eddie." He supplied.

She raised her eyebrow; there were very few people who should have felt it was their right to call her so early. Elliot was allowed to phone her whenever he damn-well pleased, but he would have never made a social call. Not anymore, anyway. _Lest he get give me the wrong idea_ , she thought bitterly.

Suddenly she felt a little self-conscious.

"Hold on just a sec…" Liv told him, almost as if she had answered the door in her pajamas. She covered her hand over the receiver and cleared her throat and rubbed her eyes, trying to wake up properly.

She drew in a deep breath and removed her hand. "Okay, sorry… I'm here."

"I'm so sorry Liv, I really didn't mean to wake you," he said apologetically, "I just expected you would be awake since you said you wanted to get to the hospital at 8."

Her secret was uncovered; she was a five-minute-showering kinda girl who didn't spend more than 10 minutes pampering. "Yeah, guess I just slept in, I'm glad you called, I must have missed the alarm," she fibbed.

"Well…anyway, I just wanted to see if you needed me to swing by and get you a ride, or if you'd prefer to meet there," he asked politely, seeming a little more relaxed to know she wasn't mad at him for waking her.

Quite frankly she hadn't really gone over the details, and even though she'd just had two drinks the night before, her head pulsated as though she had a hangover.

_Not enough sleep…_

She brought her hand up to her head and thought for a moment. "Uh… maybe just meet me there, thanks though, I might be running a few minutes behind."

"Okay cool. I'll be waiting with coffee," he said in a smooth voice – a bit deeper than usual, probably his morning voice, it didn't sound too shabby at all. She could just sense that he was smiling his sweet, sincere smile on the other end of the line. "And donuts," he added, "just to be commercial."

She laughed at his feeble joke and said goodbye and slumped back in to bed for a moment to just get her head together for the day. She sent a quick message to Elliot to let him know she was headed back to the hospital to question Molly and would be joined by Ed and would see him when his shift began at 11.

She encouraged him to cut out his bullshit with Briscoe and canvas the area around the apartment.

She made the executive decision that she would have them all meet back at the SVU precinct at lunch time and figure out what the next steps should be.

Eddie took a few sips of his coffee and sat in the soft chair beside Molly's bed.

He had been up since 5:30 and was on his way to the hospital as soon as he had called Liv.

He knew he was early, but he also knew when this little girl woke up, it would be for the first time in her life, without anyone there to greet her.

The idea of that plucked at his heart-strings for some ridiculous reason. He wanted to be there before she woke up, before the social worker arrived.

Every so often a case came along that he took personal, it was probably the same for every officer – but in the case of children, he was always brought back to the reality of his own situation.

He remembered the sweet face of his own baby girl, grinning happily at him every day from her hospital bed regardless of grim things got. There was never a time he would have allowed her to wake up without seeing at least his face or her Mom's.

He watched Molly as she slept, thinking of how familiar this situation seemed, right down to the dull glow of the hospital lamp in the darkened ward hurting his eyes.

Reliving any memory of Sadie had always unbearable, that's why he had never bothered to share it with anyone before the previous night. He remembered his then-fiance accusing him of being ashamed of Sadie's memory since he didn't like to talk about her. She accused him of not loving their daughter, and frankly, that was when their relationship effectively ended.

It was never that he wanted to talk about her – he did, he wished he could share how much she lit up his life from the time he found out he was going to be a father. He wondered how something he had never knew he wanted had turned out to be the thing he yearned for the most until she was born.

After she was gone, Ed found it too hard to think of her – he found the heaviness of his own grief too much to deal with; too hard to breathe – he was scared that if he came undone he would never be a whole person again and he had to be strong for his fiancé, Sofia – she needed him, he was the provider, the one who had to hold what was left of their family together.

The resentment didn't build up over night, but over the following year after they had lost their child. It was Sofia's obsession with immortalizing their daughter with photos all over the house including ones of her grave illness. It began to eat at him – the constant talking about his daughter made it harder to relax and even worse that when he looked at his partner that he had at one time thought was his soulmate, he saw his child in her.

He didn't feel good about it, but he took on a job at vice and went undercover just to avoid Sofia and shortly thereafter, the fights began. At first it was silly snipes at each other and then it snowballed in to long nightly screaming matches that left them both crying in grief and apologizing until the dawn. The last straw was ambivalence; not caring enough to fight anymore.

Eventually she told him she was leaving him and she was moving back to her mother's house in New Jersey. Ed sometimes wished he'd put up more of a fight but he didn't want to lose his dignity to pine for someone who clearly couldn't stand to be around him anymore.

She took all of the photos with her which had been a relief. During one of their screaming matches he had taken them and smashed them all, one-by-one and then he had been sorry for it; he loathed himself for how it had broken his wife-to-be.

Ed wasn't proud of the mistakes he made and sometimes he took the only picture frame of his daughter that he had still up and he hugged it he had dulled the pain enough with alcohol to pass out.

A nurse came in to check on Molly about fifteen minutes after he arrived.

He sat forward in charcoal suit and quickly forgot the dark thoughts. The nurse was pleasant-looking with her auburn red hair pulled back in to a ponytail and green eyes seemed surprised to see him there. "Hello." She flashed him a polite smile.

"Hi… Could you tell me how Molly is doing?" He wondered.

She hesitated for a moment, unsure of whether or not it was okay to give him any details.

He took his badge out and showed her. "I'm NYPD. Detective Ed Green." He explained, introducing himself, "I was just a little concerned about her, we still don't have any details about family yet." He told her.

He held the styrofoam coffee cup to his lips as he clapped the pocketbook that held his badge together and stuffed it back in to the pocket of his jacket. The nurse picked up the clipboard and handed it to him.

"Here's her report… what happened to her is just _awful_ …" she murmured. "Now that the shock of what happened has all but subsided, she'll probably start to feel the extent of her injuries today… Especially with the ribs and the cheek…" the nurse explained, gesturing to her own cheek as if to show him what she meant.

Ed took the information in stride. He didn't quite know what to say, she had said it for him, it was _awful_. He took the clipboard from the ivory-skinned nurse and thanked her. "Has Molly said anything? I mean… you know, anything of importance?"

The nurse shook her head and looked back at him, "She was calling out to her Daddy in her sleep when I started shift."

Eddie frowned for a moment, well _that_ was new, he thought. There _was_ a Dad involved in the picture. He wondered where _he_ was. _Interesting._ He relaxed his face, not wanting to worry the nurse. "Okay… thanks." He nodded. "It's okay if I stick around for an hour or so?" he confirmed with her.

"Of course but… the social worker doesn't want anyone interrogating her," she told Eddie as a word of warning.

"She's only four, I'm not about to go ham playing good-cop bad cop," he couldn't help but to quip. The nurse gave a chuckle and he felt relieved that his comment didn't upset her. He didn't ever plan on interrogating Molly, but he wanted to get some information from her.

"I know, Detective, but we do have to follow the social worker guidelines, but I'm just glad someone is here with her and looking out for her."

He smiled weakly at her as she updated Molly's charts and checked her obs.

He sank back down in the chair and read over the report, looking for any clues that could alert him as to what had happened. It was almost too hard to read; the words became a blur of molestation, head-trauma, fractures, contusions and superficial bruising. He put it down on the hospital table, it was too much.

He couldn't read about it, not right now. He remembered the night before when Olivia had begun to tell him the extent of Molly's injuries and he had found it hard to breathe again. He was pretty sure he was going to have to get used to that feeling for the rest of the damn case.

He tried to think of just about anything else, he didn't want to dredge up feelings from the past. He was _so_ tired. He had hardly slept a wink. He couldn't wait for a few days off to just spend them solidly sleeping, even if he did sometimes have to wash down an Ambien with a scotch or something.

He pondered over the early hours he had spent with someone who was supposed to be his arch-enemy; Olivia Benson of the SVU. It was nice, a little awkward, but he was pretty certain they both needed each other's company just for a kind of reprieve from their usual partners.

A small voice from beside him softly called out to her mother.

Detective Green put down his coffee that was feeling like an extension of his hand. Her voice was pitiful and weak. He stood up slowly and came close to the side of her bed, facing the doorway of the room. He leaned over the rails that enclosed the four-year-old in to her bed.

She had some stitching above her eye and had been placed in fresher pajamas that she had been in when they'd found her. One eye was hidden under a patch, the eye that was purple and swollen the day earlier. The poor little thing was a mess. Her cheekbone was now almost green with bruising; it took a few hours for it to really bloom.

It wasn't fair. _It wasn't fair._

"Mommy…" She called out again, a little louder.

"Sweetheart…" He whispered, trying to soothe her. "It's okay…" he told her, even though it wasn't okay. What the _fuck_ was okay about this situation?

She wept, balling her little fist and rubbing her uncovered eye before flinching from her own touch. Eddie reached over and smoothed her hair from her forehead gently, not wanting to startle or hurt her. "Do you remember me?" He wondered, trying to seem bright and positive, "from yesterday?"

She didn't reply she let out loud cries and his heart broke, her face contorted in a pout with tears tracking down the sides of her face. He almost forgot how to speak to a little girl, the pain of that reality seemed to make his heart sink a little more. "Remember," he smiled kindly at her, "you kept my special police officer's badge very safe for me yesterday, didn't you?"

He managed to figure out how to pull down the safety bars from the side of the bed so he could pull his chair close and sit down beside her. She continued to cry. "Mommyyyyy…" she begged over and over.

He didn't really know what to do, but he instantly went in to parent mode, doing for her as he would have his own little girl. He shifted her slightly and gingerly as he sat down on her bed, gently guiding her against him as he cuddled her close to his body. He felt the heat from her distress radiating from her. He stroked her hair and comforted her softly.

"Its okay, honey," he said in a calm, even tone, "I'm not your Mommy, but I'm here, I'll take care of you for now."

When the caramel skinned child's cries began to ease, Eddie took on another tactic, "do you remember my name?" he asked.

This time Molly shook her head slowly.

"That's okay, sweetheart. My name is Eddie Green… and you can call me Eddie if you like. I'm going to be your friend, just like Olivia, do you remember her?"

"Molly nodded. "I want my Mommy," she told him, uninterested in hearing anything else.

It was painful for him to hear her asking even though he was aware she had been told her Mom was gone. He grabbed her tiny hand in his. It was halfway bandaged with an intravenous line where she had been getting fluids the night before.

"I know you want your Mommy," he empathized with her, "but… something happened to your Mommy and she was hurt very, very badly…" he tried to explain.

He ran his free hand through his hair, wondering why the hell he even came. What was he thinking? "And she isn't with us anymore… She is in heaven now."

Molly said nothing. He knew that she was aware of her mother's death.

"Molly, do you know where your Daddy lives?" he wondered quietly. She looked at him with her hollow chocolate eyes and said nothing. "It's very important, sweetheart…"

Instead, Molly showed him the back of her wrist which was hindered by an IV line and bandaged up to her tiny, thin wrist. "Look at my boo boo."

Ed had to accept that she was a little girl who had no concept of how important this information was, nor could she aptly comprehend the weight of the crime committed against her or her mother. And besides that, she was just too sweet to become frustrated with.

He pretended to be shocked by the IV, briefly comparing the contrast of their skin tones against the other, similarities between himself and his daughter flashed to mind. He paid attention to her IV line that was closed off for the moment.

"Oh _wow_ ," he murmured, "that looks _terrible_ ," he remarked. "You must have been such a brave girl… did the doctor do this?"

She nodded, "Olivia sang me a song when it got the needle."

Eddie couldn't help but to smile as she relayed the previous night to him, it was the most she had ever heard her speak, and very clearly she was proud of herself. "My stars…" He widened his eyes, feigning surprise, "you _were_ brave, I bet _I_ would have cried!"

Molly said nothing but looked closely at the cannula before drawing it away and resting her arm back beside her.

"Well _good_ morning!" a soft but optimistic voice sounded from the doorway.

Both Eddie and Molly looked up to the source. Olivia stood with a smile on her face. She briefly made eye contact with him, feeling almost embarrassed about their late-night company the night before.

She had been watching them for a moment in the doorway before she decided to make her entrance. The six foot, three-inch detective that towered over the little girl was sitting beside her on the bed examining her arm couldn't have seemed any more gentle if he tried.

The gentle-giant, she thought endearingly.

She gave thought to his brief mention of his little girl and wondered how it was affecting him to be sitting by another in a hospital bed who looked bruised and defeated by her attacker.

She never knew him very well, she had only ever spoken to him about cases; they shared details over a coffee at a crime scene, but hardly had she ever so much as seen this man crack a smile.

He seemed so serious and had a look of constant concern manifesting on his dark forehead in the form of worry-lines.

Seeing him in this environment was nice, different – and reminded her that her co-workers weren't the robots that she sometimes felt like they all were. She had managed to rouse many kind smiles from the Detective in the past 24 hours, more than she had ever seen from him in the whole time she knew him.

"Hi Olivia," Detective Green greeted her, his eyes lingering over her slender frame. He wasn't used to her hair being pulled back off of her face. It seemed to highlight her defined bone structure, drawing attention to just how beautiful she was.

Olivia made her way over to Molly, and smiled at her, "Hi honey, how are you feeling?" She asked her. "Are you okay?"

Molly nodded silently.

"Are you hurting anywhere?" She pressed the little girl.

The little girl lifted her free hand and put her hands on her tummy where she had been bandaged for the fractured ribs and then pointed to her head.

"Okay…" Olivia nodded as if she were thinking over how to remedy Molly's complaints. "we'll try to fix that for you…"


	8. Chapter 8: What Does The Day Bring?

Ed spent some time discussing the doctor's findings in the corridor while Olivia stayed with Molly. She sipped the extra shot of coffee Ed had instinctively ordered for her. She watched the child rest but it had taken awhile to get her to relax.

The swelling in her face had began to hurt and throb and the doctor warned that her mobility may have been limited once the shock of the past 24-48 hours had passed and the pain set in.

Olivia knew that they were on borrowed time – she couldn't stay in the hospital forever with the child. She had to do her work and she knew that it wouldn't be long before Cragen would be on her about caring too much and getting too involved.

At least she had Ed, he helped buffer the situation – he fielded calls from Lennie _and_ Elliot about the discussions they'd been having with Molly and her doctors and made it seem like there was a _lot_ more investigating than what they had been doing.

She drew in a deep breath and downed the rest of the luke-warm liquid in her cup. She got up and tossed it in to the waste basket and went outside in to the hall to see what was going on.

Olivia smiled at the same doctor who she had spoken to the night before, "you don't leave this place, doc?" she joked warmly. Ed glanced up at Olivia. He was writing notes on his little black pad. He flipped the cover over and put it back in to his pocket.

"I could say the same for you, detective," she flashed her a smile. They shared a little chuckle.

"Do you think you could fax a copy of that lab report to our office?" Ed asked as he handed her a business card. "It would be a big help."

"Sure, I'll be sure to do that…" the doctor turned to Olivia. "Did you manage to get a hold of some family members?"

"Not yet…" Olivia winced, "I know social services are going to want to place her ASAP, do you know how long you'll need to hold her here?" she asked pointedly, hoping the doctor would understand what she was getting at.

"Well… there are probably is some monitoring that Molly will require with her head and eye injury…"

"And also the broken ribs?" Ed asked in a tone like Olivia's. Olivia regarded him with a semi-amused look. He gave her a little wink which made her feel funny inside.

"Yeah… I think that would have to depend on how mobile she is over the next few days or so, too much movement might actually impede the healing process," the doctor nodded slowly.

"That's a shame," Olivia said, "but we trust your professional opinion doctor," she smiled.

The doctor smiled back at her.

"We better get back to the precinct," Ed told Olivia, "is someone going to be able to keep us updated about Molly's progress?" he asked.

"Yes, feel free to call for updates," she replied.

"I don't really want to leave her to wake up without someone being here for her," Liv remarked, reluctantly, looking behind her in to the window of where the small girl slept, "but if I don't, I'm sure my boss will have something to say."

"Don't worry Liv, Doctor Risley will take care of her," Ed assured her, gently placing a large hand upon her arm.

"He's right," the doctor replied with a warm smile in Olivia's direction, "we'll make sure she's okay. "I can see this little one has affected you, but she will get the extra care that she deserves, don't you worry about that."

"I'm not affected," Olivia said firmly, "I just want to make sure she isn't alone given what she's been through."

"Okay…" Ed knew it was bullshit, but nevertheless he didn't push the issue. "Come on then, let's go, I'm sure Lennie and Elliot will be starting shift soon."

"I got the squad car…" Ed told Olivia as they crossed the road leaving the hospital. "From what I've heard, Lennie has taken up some space down at SVU, so we can go back there and see what's happening and continue with some phone calls," he suggested.

"Sure, sounds good," Olivia replied.

Ed realized he was walking ahead and she was trailing behind him. He fell in to step and didn't mind the comfortable silence between them. "Over here…" he nodded to the side street. They turned their direction to the left and Liv saw the crappy squad car parked illegally. She laughed. "Eddie you have a ticket…"

He shrugged as he watched her step forward and pulled the slip from beneath the windshield wiper. "You're lucky you didn't get your wheels locked."

He laughed as she handed him the paper. "Well, this is New York, where else am I supposed to park?"

"You could spring $5 for hospital parking," she suggested, shaking her head in disbelief. "What is it with detectives with shallow pockets?"

"Hey!" he exclaimed, mocking hurt as he unlocked the doors and opened the passenger door for her, "I don't have shallow pockets… I just know that the ticket will be thrown out, all good."

"Entitlement, Detective…" she wagged her finger, rolling her eyes at him – the fact that he'd chivalrously opened her door did _not_ go unnoticed. He had leaned over her and she had been close enough to catch a waft of his fresh cologne.

She wondered if he knew just how good he smelled.

He got in to the car and glanced at the ticket. "89 bucks? I tell you what, that's a crime all on its own!" he exclaimed.

Liv couldn't help but to laugh at his incredulousness. He glanced at her, waiting for her to join in on his outrage but he just found her smiling and it wasn't at all a terrible sight.

His eyes lingered over her beautiful face for just a moment longer than what was appropriate. He peeled his gaze away and stabbed the keys in to the ignition and turned the car over.

Liv tried to brush off odd feeling of her cheeks heating up with Ed's looks. She was still fighting a fatigue headache that was pounding in her temples. The coffee Ed had for her when she arrived had barely hit the sides going down.

"You seem a bit off?" Ed spoke finally.

"Tired," she replied, "I was out raging all night with some dude who wouldn't stop talkin' about work," she teased.

Eddie managed a laugh. "Wow, he sounds like a total shmuck. Shoulda told him you were using the bathroom and left," he joked.

Olivia laughed, "did cross my mind, but I guess I'm just a good person," she replied.

"Seems like it…" he agreed, glancing over at her and noticing she was going through her flip phone. "Jeez, budget cuts over at SVU, huh?" he asked. "Looks like that phone belongs back in 1996…"

"Nah, I'm hopeless with phones – I either lose them or can't figure them out, so this one is fine, give me a moment, I'm just calling Elliot."

Ed said nothing and watched her hit send on a call. She waited a few moments as they were at a traffic-stand still.

"Hey…" her voice trailed off. "Ha, ha very funny," she replied to Elliot pretending that she was a stranger.

"What's going on, you hangin' out with lover-boy Eddie Green, tryin' to make me jealous?" Elliot joked and it was _just_ like him to do that. She didn't understand if it was flirty or serious or whether or not she should just ignore him.

"We're working the case, Elliot," she replied sharply. "The girl mentioned her father to a nurse early this morning. She was calling out to him apparently,"

"Already ahead of you, we managed to find the name of her father, Maurice Prescot – recently separated from Jill."

"Oh, you're already at work," Olivia seemed surprised but she didn't know why – it was nothing for both of the detectives to work way more than their allocated hours.

"Yeah, the crime isn't going to solve itself..." he replied cockily, inferring that she and Ed were doing nothing – well, she thought, they had been more-or-less babysitting a four year old, so perhaps he had a point, but he didn't need to know that.

"We're on our way back to SVU," she told him tersely. "I'll see you when we get there, let me know if you have any leads you want us to check up on in the meantime."

"Will do…"

"Later," Olivia closed the phone and tossed it in the center console in a huff.

"What's _that_ about?" Ed asked, trying to appear friendly, but there had always been a lot of rumours about Elliot and Liv – they were known as the impenetrable duo. While he tried not to ever indulge in male-dominated locker-talk, it was hard to ignore the many who were of the opinion that they had more between them than a solid, loyal partnership.

"What do you mean?" she asked. She wasn't immune to the jokes, the rumors and the snide remarks from other officers. In fact, it was the constant comments that made her question whether or not everyone else knew her feelings before she might have.

It was a loaded question, she thought. She didn't really know what her relationship with Elliot was about and she wasn't sure that he did either. All he knew was that he had a wife and children at home and he wasn't going to betray the many years he had with Kathy.

"People say you and Elliot are close, you know – solid working partners, the way Lennie and I are… but I don't think I've seen you so revolted by a person—it wasn't like that when we worked on that Alverez case, is everything good?"

Olivia barely knew Ed. She felt good vibrations from him, she felt as though he was a very sincere man, but she didn't know him to tell him the situation and she wasn't sure she even trusted herself with her feelings on the issue.

"Elliot is a good guy and a good partner – unfortunately we've worked together for such a long time that he knows just what to say to get a reaction from me and finds joy in that or something… I dunno, I have no time for it at the moment."

She dared not look at Eddie for fear that he'd see the lies for what they were as they spewed from her mouth. She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. He never really took her for the quiet, moody kind – and had never really known her to be. He was sure that something was going on, she had a storm cloud following her around and she had barely smiled or even hinted at feeling anything less than ambivalent about her job.

"That sounds like a well rehearsed answer," he couldn't help but to remark. He knew he was pushing it – that he was on the cusp of her telling him to fuck off and mind his own business, but he was genuinely concerned about her.

It could have just been the particular case – it seemed to have shaken both of them.

"My Mom passed three weeks ago," she blurted out. "Sorry," she apologized quickly, "I…-"

"No, no…" he said quickly, "please don't apologize, I'm really sorry to hear that. Have you given yourself enough time?" he asked.

"Time for what?" she asked with a sardonic laugh, "sitting around at home pouring over my feelings and feeling sorry for myself?"

"I know when something tragic happens like losing someone close to you, your instant reaction is to just get on with things," he started, speaking from his own experience, "but be careful, Olivia, grief has a really nasty way of sneaking up on you when you don't expect it and it can chew you up, tear you apart in a slow, torturous and toxic way if you don't deal with it."

She looked out the window and he almost certainly heard her sniff. He was comfortable enough with his own masculinity to deal with a woman's emotions. After dealing with Sofia's for so long, he had the patience and compassion of a saint.

"My mother was an alcoholic; it was hardly a tragedy – more of a … matter of time," she replied.

"Still… she was still your Mom and regardless of it, you'd still have to be feeling some kinda way about it or else you'd never have brought it up," he told her gently.

He pulled in park a short distance from the precinct.

"I'm wishing I never brought it up…" her voice trailed off, her sign for him to just drop it.

Ed turned to her as he turned the car off and held up his hands in defeat. "Hey, all good if you don't want to talk about it, I get it… but I'm here if you do…"

She made eye contact with him and saw the sincerity in his kind eyes. "Thanks…"

He gave her a smile and made his motion to exit the car. "I'll call Lennie and see if those bozos want some lunch – probably the least we can do for dragging our heels while they steer the ship." He nodded toward the Shake Shack across the road.

"Oh sure, you won't spring five bucks for hospital parking, but you don't mind splurging for a precinct luncheon," she couldn't help but to remark sarcastically.

Eddie laughed a deep, bass-y laugh that she couldn't help but to smile at. "You ain't gonna let up on that, are you? I am a generous man, Detective Benson, but I am not gonna pay that fine and I sure ain't gonna pay for hospital parking, that shit isn't right – you gonna charge people per the hour to visit their gravely ill family – kids?" he asked, "nuh-uh, not this guy."

She laughed, genuinely and lightly and suddenly felt a little better – perhaps it was his tender moment with her back in the car. Not that she felt she had to tell him everything, but more that there was the invitation from someone who was willing to listen. "Yeah, yeah… you stick it to the man."


	9. Chapter 9: Workin' The Crime

Everything about Elliot Stabler grated Ed Green. It wasn't just his any one thing that he did – but just his presence alone kept him on the edge of feeling agitated.

Ed made a workspace at the desk to Olivia's left, close enough for them to be able to work together and unfortunately it was across from Stabler, in a similar way to how close he and Lennie worked at their own precinct.

Every time Ed looked up from the computer he found Elliot staring at him. He thought maybe he was being sensitive, but the fourth time he caught him he stared straight back at him. "What?"

Elliot shook his head as though he'd been entranced. "Nothing, just thinking…"

Ed and Olivia exchanged looks but neither said anything. Ed stared at the finger print data base, looking through the list of possible matches. Nothing was jumping out at him.

He looked up to see Briscoe coming from Cragen's office. The two had been in the job a similar amount of time and went way back. He might have been working for him, but he certainly would have received preferential treatment to a degree.

"Warner just called, she's got a hit on some DNA," Lennie announced. "Who's coming with?"

"Why don't you let these two go? My back hurts… doesn't your back hurt Lennie?" Elliot asked, looking up at the aging detective who stood before them. Olivia glanced at her partner, wondering if he was serious or if he was just being stupid.

"No?" Lennie seemed puzzled, "why?"

Liv caught Ed roll his eyes without bothering to even give the two other detectives any attention.

"You know, we've been carrying this case all on our own, I just thought, might be nice if Liv and Eddie did some of the work," he said with a smug smile that Olivia wanted to immediately wipe right off of his face.

Ed stood up as he heard Lennie begin to laugh. He grabbed his jacket that was sitting behind his chair and slid his arms in to it. "Come on, Liv..." he turned to Elliot, "its Ed, not Eddie to you."

"Oooh," Stabler smiled again, chuckling. "Go on Liv, your lover-boy is callin'"

"You're a dick, Elliot," Olivia snapped, getting up and following Ed out of the squad room.

"Wow, he did _not_ like that," Elliot remarked, watching the door close behind Olivia. "Must have hit close to the bone,"

"Cut him some slack," Lennie shrugged, taking the seat where Ed had been sitting. "He doesn't do well when there are child victims involved. It's one thing he's never been good at."

"How do you think I feel?" Elliot asked, "I have four kids of my own and one on the damn way, he doesn't even have kids."

Briscoe shrugged. "This is your job," Lennie countered, "dealing with child victims more often than not, its not something we really have to witness, especially when the child is still alive to tell the story."

Elliot knew he had a point. "Still, you can't tell me they've been at that hospital for almost 24 hours and haven't got a single thing to show for it – your man Green was probably workin' more than the case."

Lennie rolled his eyes but _had_ wondered a similar thing.

"No disrespect to you and the work you guys do, but your partner is a real piece of work," Ed remarked as they made their way across to the forensic lab.

Olivia shrugged, "he's a good detective, he's just got his nose out of place cos he doesn't like working with other squads, he's territorial."

Ed smiled. "Not just about the squad, I don't believe," he teased her.

"Don't," she said firmly. "He's a married man, that isn't my thing and it's surely not his."

It wasn't quite true. She didn't really want to be with a married man, she didn't want to be another woman's sloppy seconds – but sometimes she desired him in the moments of compassion and friendship that he showed her. She knew when it came down to it, he loved her – she wasn't quite sure by which capacity that was, but she knew it to be true.

Above all else, she didn't truly want to be the reason his children had two separate houses and two parents that had built up resentments between one another.

"I'm just sayin' he's all gettin' under your skin… remember in grade school – you make fun and pick on the girl you like the most."

Olivia knew he wasn't trying to be an ass, he was just poking fun, in a similar way it occurred to her that maybe just like in school, he was teasing her cos he liked her.

The difference was Ed's teasing was good-natured and didn't inspire frustrated or hurt feelings.

"Shut up, that's dumb…" she retorted, finally breaking a smile.

"Well, that's two smiles for me today, I'll take that as a win," he shrugged and turned back to the road as the traffic began moving again.

"I have to admit," she said, pushing the words from her mouth, "it's a nice change to be working with someone who isn't so pig-headed or who doesn't spend the day trying to convince me that The moon landing was the biggest conspiracy of our modern times…" she told him.

Maybe it _was_ a side-effect of working sex crimes, but Olivia felt like she had all but forgotten how to make conversation and interact with other humans when she put work aside. She hated to say heart-felt things for fear that they sounded insincere or silly. Unless she was talking to a victim and she never doubted her warmth and support.

She didn't want Ed to think she was miserable – or that she didn't have any substance to her as a person.

"Munch?" he asked with a laugh.

She laughed too, "yeah… Munch and his conspiracies…"

"I love that man's mind. I tell ya, he's nothing if not skeptical and I do love that he reads _everything_ and forms his own opinion; I can at least respect that."

"It just gets tired some days… his latest obsession is chem trails…"

Ed laughed again. "I did some reading on that, I think it's called bio engineering – these nuts think you can control the weather when you fall down the rabbit hole of apparent peer-reviewed research." He made air-quotes.

"I dunno, I have too many other things to worry about than the government trying to poison us all…" she shrugged. She yawned, realizing after eating the burger she had for lunch that she really, truly needed some sleep.

"Sometimes ignorance is bliss, I totally get that," he agreed, "I don't need more reasons to keep me up at night," he chuckled sardonically.

"I'm sure you have many ladies that will help you out there…"

"What!" he laughed, "are you kidding? Come on, Olivia, that's a fairly low blow."

She caught herself, realizing just how rude and presumptuous she had been. "I'm sorry –" she said quickly, "I didn't mean that to sound how it did, I just know that …"

"You know what?" he asked, staring at her blankly. She found it hard to read whether or not he was mad or amused. His chestnut eyes stared in to hers, studying her face, trying to figure out what the next thing out of her mouth would be.

He didn't want her to think that he was some kind of womanizer. Was _he_? Did he have a reputation?

"I've just… heard rumours… sorry, that was really inappropriate."

He finally looked away, almost ashamed and Olivia's face burned with embarrassment. She felt so stupid. Yep, foot-in-mouth, definitely guilty of that, she thought. This was why she kept to herself. Most basic social conventions were missed by a mile, these days.

"I have a reputation?" he asked, unsure; as if it could have been a revelation to him.

She quickly shook her head. "No, it was stupid of me to say, I guess I've just heard someone say something once."

"So I _do_ have a reputation… well, Benson," he started, causing her to cringe at the use of her last name and not her first name as he had been. "I don't think I'm a womanizer… I date a lot, that's not a crime; I'm not inappropriate. I don't kiss and tell, I don't flaunt it and I certainly wouldn't want a lady that I've been with to ever feel disrespected."

"I know, I know, jeez…. I'm so sorry, Ed."

His face was serious now – there was tension in his expression. She was worried she'd blown it.

Blown _what_?

_Making a friend…_

Her stream of consciousness was going crazy and she didn't know what else to do.

"Since we're talking about rumors and apparently making assumptions," he began and she wished so much that she could escape from the car and that the ground would swallow her whole.

She briefly considered opening the door and rolling out and risking getting run over by oncoming traffic if it meant that the awkwardness that filled the matter enshrouding them would disperse.

"There is a really vicious rumor that you and Elliot are hooking up behind his wife's back. I've heard it from about five different people…"

"What!" Olivia exclaimed, horrified. "Are you kidding? Never! No!" she protested emphatically. "I _love_ Kathy, I love his kids – I would never be a part of that and he wouldn't either, people are fucking pathetic."

"Well… _I_ didn't believe the rumour about you…for what it's worth."

"And I've made a pig of myself by making reference to some stupid shit I heard about you…"

Finally Ed laughed. "I dunno… maybe there _is_ some truth to the rumor," he relented, "but weirdly enough, I'd never considered it to be the case until you've brought it up right now."

Ed thought it was a little cute the way that the Detective next to him seemed to recoil in horror at the thought of offending him. Her whole face was on fire and she looked as though she was ready to evaporate.

"You don't have to explain yourself to me… what you do on your watch is your business. You have a good reputation as a celebrated Detective, so I wouldn't worry."

He smiled, realizing just how hard it was for her to let anyone in beneath the surface. He knew years of working sex crimes had probably hardened her and made it difficult to trust men or at the very least resist the opportunity to be suspicious of every single motive, but he was sure from what he had already witnessed of her, that she was a warm, sensitive soul beneath her own bravado.

In his experience, Ed realized that people often shared bits and pieces of themselves when they realized the other person was showing a little vulnerability.

"Honestly, Liv, I probably do have a habit of going to bars, going to the casino – whatever, just to forget."

"Your cases?" she asked, her interested piqued immediately.

"My daughter…" he let his voice trail off. "I find it hard to connect with women when I go on serious dates because they've either already had kids, don't want kids or are straight-up vapid… but it's not that I'm happy to be single…" he admitted.

"You don't have to tell me this…" he could almost see her wall going up, but he wasn't going to allow it. He knew she had shared the news of her mother's death with very few people and he believed there was a reason she had blurted it out to him.

"I know," he said with a shrug, "I don't mind though, I don't feel embarrassed to share that I've got some pretty hefty demons to deal with…"

"It probably just makes you an incredibly self-aware and intuitive person," she finally dared to look back up at him with a smile.

"Well… thanks… but I guess nobody likes to hear something a little confronting about themselves and I suppose it wouldn't hurt to examine my own behavior a little."

They pulled to the front of the ME's office to get the results and go through them at length with Melinda with the hope that they'd have something to work on.

It was getting late and they finally had something to move on. The DNA found beneath the victim's fingernails was a match for the husband; Maurice Prescott.

"We need to find the husband…" Briscoe said slowly as Elliot pulled up some phone records that he had managed to get a hold of from TARU. "Maybe this will bring us some new leads…" he added.

"Okay this is what I want," Cragen came out, "I need you, Elliot to go with Olivia to speak with the neighbors again, Lennie you and Green do what you guys do best, follow up all the usual and immediate suspects."

"Captain, I've been goin' through these phone records, I'm making a headway," Elliot shot back, not taking his eyes off the screen.

"Not an option," Cragen said firmly. "Go on, I don't want you back here until Liv is on end of shift."

"Am I in trouble for something?" Olivia asked, standing up.

"No," Cragen replied, pointedly, "I just think we've lost our focus a little bit given that there's a child victim here, and I need both you and Ed focused on the facts, not the child, not to sound heartless."

Olivia and Ed exchanged looks. She could tell he felt just as irate about her boss' assumptions as he did.

She said nothing and made her way out, grabbing her coat.

"Well that was a giant waste of time…" Elliot remarked as they pulled back up to the precinct parking.

Olivia said nothing. She was over Elliot's games. He flirted with her all the way to the apartment block of Molly and Jill Prescott and became mean when she didn't respond to him.

"What the hell is going on with you?" Elliot asked her, becoming frustrated at trying so hard to rouse the same old Olivia Benson who found him charming and funny—who at one time flirted back.

"Are you _kidding_ me?" she asked, finally losing her temper. "You do not stop, do you?"

"Is this about what happened in the break room?" he asked. They never referred to it as the kiss or the moment they shared – drawing too much attention to it made it the reality for what it was. "Are you still mad I pushed you away?"

She threw her head back and laughed and shook her head. She faught so hard to keep her tears at bay. She didn't want to show her weakness. She couldn't believe that just a few weeks back she had been betrayed by her own grief and vulnerability.

"My _mother_ is dead, Elliot, or are you so full of fucking self-flattery that you forgot that? I was _vulnerable_. I was looking for someone to give a _fuck_ about me – not to be a home-wrecker."

There was silence in the car as she felt her eyes filling with tears.

"I lost my Mom, El…and you should never have taken advantage of that moment. You might have pushed me away when I was dumb enough to fall in to that trap, but you're the damn one who put your lips on me first."

She wiped her eyes with the back of her hands.

Elliot looked at her with that piteous glare that she hated so much. He went to make a move to hug her or embrace her but she held up her hand and pushed his arm away.

"Don't…" she murmured, trying not to let her voice crack through her tears. She opened up the car door and wiped her face again before heading back upstairs to the squad room.

Ed immediately picked up that something was wrong. "Hey, what's up?" he called out to her, watching her power past him to the ladies room. He slowly put on his coat. "What happened?" he asked Elliot as he came in to the squad room trailing behind his partner.

Elliot gave Ed his best stare. "What happened with what?" he asked, an edge to his voice as he neared Eddie, his blue eyes cold with irate.

"Liv, she just legged it to the wash room…"

"I dunno what you're tryin' to do, but two days ago she was fine, now she's emotional and mad at _me_ ," Stabler said slowly and deliberately, taking a slow step toward a surprising new nemesis.

Ed couldn't help but to laugh. He straightened his back up so that he was looking down at Elliot. The seriousness faded from his face just as quickly as it appeared. "Dude, you better step out my space,"

"Oh yeah?" Elliot challenged him.

"Yeah," Ed nodded, his face showed nothing – a blankness about him that made Elliot slightly unsure of what his next move may have been. He found it a little disconcerting, Ed's lack of emotion – possible rationality that he hadn't been prepared for.

Once Elliot took stock of everyone watching their interchange, he took a step back and held up his hands.

"Maybe your partner is tired of your bullshit little quips and remarks and has been affected by the child sittin' in that hospital bed without a family member to take care of her. Get your head out yo' ass Stabler, not everything is about you."

Elliot turned away from him, swallowing his self-consciousness of the squad room staring. He kicked a chair that happened to be pulled out.

Cragen opened the door from his office. "Stabler, my office, _now_!"

Ed considered waiting around for Olivia, but knowing the very little about her that he did, there was no way she'd want any attention drawn to what had happened between her and her partner.

He was just relieved that she hadn't witnessed his encounter with Elliot.

There was nothing more that he wanted than to wipe that smug look off her partner's face. Elliot was a particularly grating man to be around – he was a jerk with a perpetual smirk glued to that stupid, crooked mouth.

He closed his brief case and ignored Briscoe who told him to wait.

"I gotta go, I need to go home to get a good night's sleep," he replied. "Tell Liv what we found."


	10. Chapter 10: A Breakthrough

Olivia stared at herself in the mirror. She fixed up the dark smudge of eyeliner beneath her eye. She dabbed at the corners of her eyes with a little wet paper towel to get rid of any other smudges to hide all traces of her tears.

There were no tears in sex crimes; she certainly wasn't going to be known as the emotional woman who cried at the drop of a hat. She had to be strong, if not stronger than the men that she worked with – it definitely was a job that was harder for women than men. It was a male-dominated workplace that was just waiting for her to topple beneath the pressure.

At least that's how it felt.

She took a few moments washing her hands and making sure any trace of emotion had left her face.

She was happy it was time to go home. She couldn't wait to get home, pour a glass of red and put some pajamas on and crash on the couch.

At home she was safe. At home she could fall apart and at home she could indulge herself with things like emotions.

Eddie woke up to a strange sensation of someone touching his hand. He jolted awake and became aware of the child pulling her hand away from him in shock.

Once he had adjusted his eyesight, he realized where he was. He let a smile cross his lips, noticing the little girl staring at him curiously. He reached across and touched her hand, returning the favor.

"You're awake…" he remarked. "How are you feeling?"

She looked at him warily but also far less afraid than she had been early in the morning.

She didn't reply. "Are you feeling better or do you still have some pain?" she just nodded. He wasn't sure exactly what she was answering to.

He was leaning against the side of the bed feeling absolutely exhausted. He was on his way home and vowed to go straight to bed but remembered the little girl all alone in the hospital room.

"Molly, guess what?" he began, watching her slide her hand over to touch his again.

He faced his palm up in the air, letting her touch his palm. He almost pulled away from her touch, shocked by how much the scenario haunted him from his past. Instead, he slowly let his hand close over hers.

"What?" she asked in the softest voice that was barely a whisper.

"I found your Daddy…" he smiled gently, trying to get a reaction from her. He wanted to know if her Dad was the culprit. "Do you want to see him?"

She nodded emphatically, a spark in her that he hadn't seen before. A smile spread across her lips. "Where is he?" she asked.

"Well, my friend is going to speak with him tonight and maybe you can see him tomorrow…." Ed explained carefully. "But before that, Molly, do you think I can ask you a few questions?"

She nodded again.

Ed smiled at her. "Honey, do you remember how you got these boo-boos?" he asked, gently letting go of her hand to touch the soft skin by the laceration on her face.

She nodded.

"Did this happen before Miss Olivia arrived yesterday?" he asked. She flinched from his touch so he retracted his hand, unsure of whether or not his touch scared her or if it hurt her.

Either way, it made him feel a little sick.

"This is really important Molly, I need you to be honest with me, okay?" she looked at him, her dark eyes studying his face, waiting for the next sentence to leave his mouth.

"Did Daddy hurt you? Did he cause this boo-boo?" he reached up and touched his own cheek. Her cheek was so swollen now that her eye was almost closed and at first when he'd arrived he'd almost been sick, but he was careful not to react to it. The bruising was purple and yellow and she was lucky her eye hadn't really been affected.

She shook her head.

"Was the man who hurt you a friend of Mommy's?" he asked.

Molly shook her head again, "he said he was a friend of Mommy but when Mommy saw my boo-boo she said he was a monster and he got mad."

"Mommy knew about your boo-boos?" Ed asked slowly, out loud as if reaching a break through. "When did Mommy find out about your boo-boos?"

"Just before the monster came, Mommy got mad at him and he went home after Daddy went to work and then he came back."

"Okay thank you Molly, you have been such a wonderful help to me. Does your Daddy go to work for a long time?" he asked, a couple small little details he wanted to iron out.

Molly nodded. "Daddy takes a plane to work," she told him.

"Okay and one last thing Molly. Do you remember the name of the bad man? The monster?"

She nodded again, "Mr. Karl."

"When Mommy used his name did she call him Mr. Karl or just Karl?" Eddie asked her, wanting to confirm whether or not he was dealing with a last name or a first name.

"Just Karl. Karl helped Mommy out with lots of things when Daddy was at work, he told me Mommy and I were very pretty."

Eddie smiled but inside he was recoiling with disgust. "You did a really good job at helping me with my questions, Molly. I am going to try my best to get Daddy here tomorrow morning so he can take care of you."

Molly seemed excited to hear about her father and thankfully she hadn't asked for her mother.

"Eddie, where is Olivia?" she asked him.

"Olivia needed to go home and have a rest. She was with you very late last night and she was here again very early this morning."

"Oh…" she seemed slightly put out.

"She will probably be back to see you tomorrow, maybe after your Daddy gets here," Ed told her.

He found it a little jarring that this gorgeous little girl was not all that different to his own little one. He remembered how sullen and quiet she would get when she was unwell. She would stare at him for hours, too tired to move around much or speak too much.

She held the whole of his heart in her tiny little hands and after she was gone she took it with her, leaving a darkness inside of him – a hole so big he wasn't sure it could ever be filled again.

It wasn't that he felt a similar feeling for this little girl beside him, but he imagined her mother somewhere in the ethereal, losing her daughter in a different but equally painful twist of tragedy. He knew that for the rest of this little girl's life she would be haunted by the memory of how she lost her mother.

It wasn't going to be easy for her. The PTSD he'd suffered as a result of losing his daughter would trigger emotional flashbacks, nightmares and grief beyond what he could ever have imagined and he was a grown adult.

He felt for Olivia too during that moment. He figured with the case and her mother's death, everything was weighing her down.

He looked up, his thoughts interrupted by a nurse that he hadn't seen yet bustling in. She seemed surprised to see him there. She smiled at both of them. "Hello Molly!" she exclaimed, "how are you feeling tonight? I see you have a friend."

"Eddie," she told the nurse as if she should have known. "Eddie is my friend."

The nurse looked at him expectantly. "That's right, I'm Eddie," he confirmed. He pulled his pocketbook from his breast pocket and showed his badge. "Detective Ed Green," he added.

The older nurse with neatly tied back mousey-brown hair seemed to be unsure of whether or not his presence was appropriate. "We've all been concerned about Molly here down at the precinct so I've come to visit after shift and make sure she's doing okay while we track down her father," he exclaimed, careful not to bring any alarm to the little girl laying beside him.

"I see," the nurse smiled. "Molly has been through it…" she said with a nod and he saw a glimmer of a wince spread across her face.

"She has…" he nodded in confirmation. "So how is she doing physically?"

"Okay," the nurse replied. "The doctor is a little worried about her breathing. With broken or fractured ribs there is always a risk of plueresy or pneumonia so we need to make sure there is some active respiratory physiotherapy," she told him. "But, given the extent of her injuries, the doctor wanted to hold off on that for a day or so and just keep close observation."

"Wise," Eddie nodded. He knew it was the doctor's way of keeping her in the hospital for longer than what was necessary – although to look at, it was obvious that Molly had serious injuries.

The nurse took a seat briefly in a grey plastic chair and recorded down her obs.

"Sweetheart, if you feel some pain in your face or in your tummy, you need to tell me, okay? You need to say, Mia, my face is sore, or … my tummy is sore, okay?" she explained to the child. Ed found himself smiling at her compassion.

Molly nodded.

"Is your tummy sore or is your face sore?"

She nodded again.

"What do you need to say?"

Molly was silent for a moment as the nurse put the chart down and waited patiently for the child to work it out. "Mia, my face is sore," she said quietly as if it may have been the wrong thing.

Ed found his heart melting. He let a smile cross his lips. "Yeah…" he nodded, "good girl, Molly…"

The nurse smiled back at Ed, grateful for his help. "Thank you for telling me where you're hurting. I will make sure that we give you some medicine to help with your pain so it doesn't hurt anymore." She stood up and put the chart away. "I will be right back okay?"

"Thanks…" Ed said as if he had some kind of responsibility to the child before him.

He let his eyes linger over her warm-honey colored skin and wondered if she was mixed race like his own daughter had been. Her hair was so light, almost blond, but was so, so curly. Someone had tied her hair in to pig-tail braids, out of the way and not annoying her; almost like Sofia used to do for their little girl.

He tried to bat away thoughts of Sadie; it was usually easy to repress the feelings of grief and sadness, but it was hard to ignore while he was dealing with this particular case. It was at the forefront of his mind.

A few minutes later the nurse, Mia, came back with someone else, holding a little tray. Ed had a lot of experience with what was about to happen next and almost pre-empted the little girl's aversion to an injection.

The nurses crossed checked the information via protocol to sign off on the dosage of medication she was about to be administered.

"Hey Molly…" Ed began, taking the attention from the nurses, wanting the child to concentrate on him. "Olivia told me that you said you like to draw pictures and color-in, is that true?"

She nodded. He thought for a moment, "Do you like to watch cartoons?" he asked her.

"Yes,"

He smiled as the nurse prepped her IV. He remembered the kicking and screaming that ensued when the coldness of the saline flush hit his daughter's veins. He had to always remind the nurses to do it slowly so that it didn't shock her as much or so it didn't burn.

He felt a little anxious as he watched the nurse connect the IV with the injection out of the corner of his eye.

"What cartoon is your favorite?"

Molly's attention went to her IV. She went to jerk her hand away but Mia held it was the other nurse left to see to her own patients. "It's okay Molly, this won't hurt, I promise."

"Do it slowly," Ed told her gently, "the saline … it can burn."

The nurse rose her eyebrow at him and instantly he felt bad. "Sorry… my daughter…" he explained, "she used to react … a lot more dramatically than Molly is… to the saline, sometimes the nurses would forget."

"Oh," Mia nodded, "that's okay, I wouldn't forget when it comes to a little one," she said, "it can be quite painful, some medications need to be done slowly."

"I didn't mean to tell you how to do your job," Ed offered, feeling silly for assuming she was stupid. He just remembered how frustrated he felt when nurses rushed their care.

"Its okay, so you're used to this whole hospital thing then, it sounds…" she remarked.

Hell…he thought. He didn't want to discuss it.

"I guess," he replied. He looked at Molly who had stopped protesting but watched with interest. "Do you want to hold my hand?" he asked the child, not wanting her to go without any comfort.

Without a word she slipped her tiny hand in his. "If you feel any pain, you just give my hand a squeeze, okay?"

She nodded.

He smiled at her.

"How old is your daughter?" the nurse asked as she slowly injected the saline through to flush the IV line before attempting to put through some medicine for pain relief.

He wasn't ready for an awkward conversation and he wasn't ready to say it out loud again. Once was enough. Twice was too much. "Almost 7…" he replied. It didn't matter, he didn't need to tell her how Sadie's life had been taken from him. He didn't need to put that on another person.

"Oh, that's a nice age. My son is 9, now that is a goofy age."

Ed laughed at the right spot in the conversation even though he didn't care. He would never find out if 9 was a goofy age for his daughter. He would never find out if having a 7 year-old was more difficult than having a 4 year old.

He would never know.

"Is your daughter in good health now?" she wondered. He couldn't be mad. He had opened Pandora's Box and she was just making conversation.

"I hope so," he replied. "I can only pray so," he added.

And it was the truth. Wherever she was, he hoped she was okay. He opened it was the all encompassing pearly-white gates full of angels and hymns and bursts of love and light.

Anything had to be better than the desperation and loneliness that he had felt when she left him behind.

The nurse put the empty saline injection down and added the new one, only half as full.

"One more, Molly…" she told the little girl. Ed smiled at her. Molly gave his hand a little squeeze and he stroked her arm with his free hand, wanting to comfort her. He could only imagine how scared she must have been without anyone that was familiar to her.

"Alriiiight, we are done, my friend!" Mia announced triumphantly to Molly. "You did so good, you were so brave!" she exclaimed.

Molly smiled.

Ed stayed a little longer, chatting to the little girl about her favorite cartoon which he had never heard of, but he delighted in her inability to articulate the plot – it sounded like a mess but it was the way she lit up, chatting away to him with a bit of spark back.

Granted, he didn't know the child before the crime, but he imagined that it was a watered down version of the personality she had even at four.

His daughter had a lot of pep and sass at her age too, it was the age where children began to form their own identities and ideas.

Mia returned as Molly was starting to get sleepy. It wasn't even 7 yet. She smiled to see the little girl's heavy eyes.

"Was that drug a sedative?" Eddie asked, wondering why she had all of a sudden started getting doe-eyed and spoke slower.

"Partially – it's a pain relief drug that will cause drowsiness. It's perfectly safe and honestly, with the extent of her injuries, I'm surprised she's not complaining more of pain."

Ed looked at the child and felt pain for her. Life was cruel, he thought, but too cruel for someone so young to endure so much.

"Okay…" he understood. "Molly," he spoke slowly and clearly to the little girl, "I'm going to go now and you're going to close your eyes and get a good night's sleep and tomorrow I will be back with Olivia and hopefully your Daddy too."

She was already halfway asleep. She nodded at him, her eyes struggling to stay open.

"Honey, close your eyes for me… it's okay," he told her, watching her give in to her sudden weariness. She shut her eyes and he knew as he got ready to leave that she was already asleep.

He walked out, Mia walking just ahead of him. She turned and fell in to step in the corridor. "It's really nice that you came to check up on her in your own time. I'll bet you're a good Dad."

"Thanks, I try to be." Without realizing it, he was acting as if his daughter was still alive. The nurse paused for a moment before turning to him again.

"Detective, I hope this isn't tactless or forward but, I'm about to finish shift in about 5 minutes, would you like to get a coffee with me?"

Eddie couldn't help but smile and considered the young woman in front of him. She was probably around his age. She was attractive, not over-the-top trying to be too-much. She was cute, seemed respectable and he could always respect a woman who was not backwards in coming forward.

It was kinda his thing, a woman who didn't play games, who was aware of what she wanted and how to communicate that directly rather than getting mad or upset and expecting him to always be able to guess.

"I mean, totally obligation free," she added as she stopped in her tracks, causing him to stop too. Her cheeks flushed a little with embarrassment. "You could tell me about your daughter… and I could tell-"

He stopped listening. It was already too much and instantly the smile fell from his face despite him trying to continue being gracious.

"I'm totally flattered," he started gently, not wanting to be a dick, but he couldn't do it. He couldn't go through it all. It was too hard to now take it all back, to explain about his daughter; he didn't want to and he shouldn't have had to. This was the part about relationships and dating that he found hard. How did he explain to someone that he already had a child and he wasn't sure if he would ever have the capacity to love another one as much or to not compare a baby with Sadie… He was the problem with the communication, not anyone else.

"Its fine," she said with an embarrassed laugh, "sorry I just thought we had a vibe-"

"It's just that… I'm on an active investigation, I don't know if it's a good idea…" to shit where I eat… He knew how a coffee date would go. It would start like that and it would end in him sneaking out of an apartment in the early hours when she had gone to sleep, leaving a note if he was game.

After Olivia had brought it to his attention, he had felt confronted and knew that the behavior had to end or else he was going to end up a baby daddy for all the wrong reasons, or worse, with a stage-five clinger on his hands.

Olivia was probably the most level-headed woman he had spoken to in awhile. She was calm; she didn't say stupid shit on the few occasions his daughter had been brought up and she didn't make him feel like he had to pretend he wasn't a homicide detective so that he didn't have to endure dumb questions.

No, I won't use my handcuffs on you.

Yes, I see some awful shit.

No, I can't tell you about active investigations.

No, I won't tell you about the most horrific thing I've ever seen.

"I understand, can't blame a girl for trying though, right?" she joked. He was so relieved that she didn't act offended or upset. Maybe a little put-out, but it didn't seem to bother her.

"Maybe some other time, but really, I'm flattered…"

"Okay," she smiled.

"Okay," he nodded. "Right, better go. See you around, Mia." He gave a shy little wave. He did feel bashful and a little embarrassed. He didn't usually encounter women outside of bars who were self-assured enough to come on to him.


	11. Chapter 11: Feelings exposed

Olivia was watching some mindless crime show on TV, finding all the errors in the police officer's protocol, reminding herself that if it bothered her she should just change the channel.

She had ordered far too much sushi and was just waiting for it to turn up as she sipped at her wine, trying so hard not to just guzzle it down.

She heard her phone chime from the coffee table and hoped to goodness that it wasn't work calling her back in for overtime. She didn't think she would be able to deal with it.

She reluctantly reached over and opened up her phone.

"Hey… what are you up to? Sorry I had to leave without updating you. I got some new info, want to meet up for a drink?"

Olivia read and re-read the message a few times and put her phone down and took another sip of wine.

She had been a little put out when she had returned to the squad room and noticed that Ed had left without saying goodbye. She felt a little bad that he had clearly noticed she was upset and she didn't at least tell him she was fine.

She thought about their day, he had shared with her a little insight in to what made him tick and was open and honest about his shortcoming. She remembered the way she had almost seen his brain click that his behaviors _may_ have come across as womanizing when all he was trying to do was to block his pain.

She respected his honesty and his ability to convey his feelings so openly and warmly without an air of hostility about him.

In fact, she _envied_ that.

She picked up her phone again and took a gulp of wine. "I'm at home, I have a bottle of red or some single malt whiskey. I've ordered some Japanese food. Feel free to join me if you like."

Her finger hovered over the send button for a moment. She drew in a deep breath and hit send.

She thought about her fight with Elliot and she was glad that she reminded him of just what he was guilty of after spending so long making her feel bad for her falling in to his stupid trap. Really, when she thought hard about it – in the moment, she was stupidly vulnerable. He should have known better. He should have never kissed her.

Granted, she shouldn't have kissed back, but he definitely wasn't innocent.

She had never hated him so much as she had when he pushed her away.

She grabbed her things and left and they never spoke about it again, really. The tension was there, but no words were spoken to acknowledge what had taken place and agree that it was a bad idea.

The most frustrating thing of all was the fact that he was able to walk in to work the following day as if nothing had ever happened.

Typical Elliot. Problems got swept under the rug never to be dealt with again.

Startling her, the phone's shrill tone blasted out in to the air. She waited a second to compose herself before answering, not wanting to seem too eager. She was relaxed enough due to the second glass of wine she was on.

"Hey," Ed's deep bass voice came through the receiver. She found herself smiling to herself. He sounded so kind and calm – something new and different in a friend, she thought.

"Hey…" she was holding her breath, almost expecting him to take a rain check. She waited for him to tell her whatever the case updates were and to say he wouldn't come.

Olivia Benson, she thought, nobody gave a shit about her outside of her job. She felt defeated before he'd said anything.

"So… are you sure you have enough wine and food for another guest? I mean, I don't want to take food out your mouth," he spoke almost shyly and it made her grin.

"I always order way too much… it would have been my lunch tomorrow, your shout again tomorrow if your pockets are deep enough," she laughed lightly.

"Okay, I got you…" he said with a little laugh too. He wasn't sure if it was flirting but he did feel a little awkward and self-aware all of a sudden. "But look, just to be on the safe side, I'll grab another bottle. What time are you starting tomorrow?"

"I start at 12:30. Just in time to have lunch on my desk," she joked.

"Oh I see how it is. Text me your address."

"Cool, how far away are you?"

"Well, I don't know where you live, so I can't tell you," he joked. "If you're in Queens, it could be awhile."

"Okay wise-ass, I'm near Central Park by the Guggenheim Museum, East 89th street."

"Oh, Detective, how did I not realize you were so high society? Doesn't your partner live in Queens? I thought that it was all budget cuts and badge wage at SVU."

She laughed again. "Well Green, SVU would be nothing without _this_ woman's touch, I guess that's why they pay _me_ the big cookies."

 _Yes_ , she thought, _this is definitely flirting_.

Ed laughed. "Okay okay, well in that case little miss high-roller, I'm less than half an hour away… is that alright?"

"No problem, I'll see you soon."

Olivia jumped up from the couch knew she had to change out of her pajama pants and in to something that appeared still casual, but not like she had gone to any effort.

She came out in to the living area with a pair of gym pants and a plain white v-neck t-shirt. She made sure everything was tidy and that there was nothing embarrassing laying about.

She grabbed her wine glass and polished off the remaining liquid that was in the bottom. She was starting to feel warm and relaxed, not drunk, but more comfortable with herself.

Ed felt odd going to the apartment of his workmate. He wasn't sure if it crossed any lines and he really had to talk to himself about putting the moves on.

He had barely been at home; just long enough to shower and change in to a pair of jeans and a black knit-sweater. He had grabbed a bottle of wine from his cupboard while he was chatting. He made sure it wasn't a cheap one he used for cooking, but one that actually didn't taste too bad.

He didn't know a lot about wine, but he knew that the cheap ones tasted like pesticide and the expensive ones wouldn't pickle his liver over night.

He ignored any weird feelings he had and was just happy not to have to spend the evening alone with his thoughts after leaving the hospital and didn't want to go and spend a soulless night with a woman who he'd forget existed the next morning.

Olivia opened the door and welcomed Ed in to her house feeling a little self conscious. She lived in a nice part of New York, but her apartment was by no means fancy.

"Hey…" she greeted him. She ignored the weird internal argument as to whether to greet him with a polite kiss or a hug and just told him to follow her. Her apartment was a two-bedroom, one living room and kitchen. The dining area was part of her living room space. It wasn't exactly a shoe-box, but it was the best that she could do.

"You have a really nice place…" Ed remarked, looking around and noticing a Jazz poster. He approved.

"You don't have to say that, I know it's small but its so close to the precinct and I've got security," se rambled a little nervously. He smiled and placed the bottle of wine on the kitchen counter.

"Take a seat, on the couch, at the table, wherever you want…" He shedded his jacket and she couldn't help but to let her eyes linger over his slim fit knitted sweater. He wasn't built like Elliot, full of popping muscles or obvious braun, but he wasn't scrawny or thin – just a nice, tall man who smelled damn good and who probably had a surprisingly muscular body beneath in his own right.

Not everyone spent three hours a night working out or whatever Elliot did, she thought almost rolling her eyes.

And why was she imagining what was underneath this man's sweatshirt?

It must have been the almost two-glasses of wine, she thought.

"Dinner just arrived, so I put it in the refrigerator. Are you ready to eat?" she wondered.

"Sure, are you sure I'm not, like, impeding on your personal time?" he asked, almost looking a little awkward and out of place.

"Oh yeah, it looks like you've really walked in to a rager," she remarked sarcastically. "Take a seat, Eddie, you're totally fine. Honestly, it's nice to not be on my own."

"Hear that…" he replied.

She put a clean wine glass down in front of him and poured him a glass. She felt a little self-conscious as she moved around a kitchen getting some plates and took out the sushi that she had kept chilled in the fridge.

She placed it down in the middle of the table. She could feel Ed's eyes following her around the room. She finally sat down and watched him smile at her. "So…" she ignored the weird air of tension in the room. "What did you guys find?"

She leaned over and poured herself a fresh glass of red.

"Well…" Ed began, "I just found out that Molly's Mom had a friend called Karl who was hanging out when Daddy wasn't around… Dad had to take a plane to get to work and Karl helped Mommy out when he wasn't home."

Olivia raised her eyebrow, feeling more comfortable slipping in to work conversation. She sipped her wine and uncovered the sushi. "Karl, huh?"

"I asked Molly if she wanted to see her father and she got really excited. I asked her gently if he hurt her and she said no. When we got to discussing this Karl person, she said that her Mom found out about her booboos and called Karl a monster, he heard and … I would say the rest played out as we found the scene."

"Shit…" Olivia cursed. "I wonder if Karl was having an affair with her or…?"

"Seems like that's probably the case."

"The question is, why was Dad's number not in the phone – why are there no phone records of Maurice texting or communicating with his wife?" Ed asked.

"Do you think if she had a boyfriend, we could have the details of a burner phone?" Olivia suggested.

Ed nodded. "Yeah, maybe that's it…" his voice trailed off. "Anyway, I am just really glad that her father is around and before you and Stabler got back, Lennie managed to get a hold the company he worked for, so…"

"Oh great…" Olivia was relieved that they found a family member. "I was starting to think it was going to be a losing battle."

Olivia picked up her chopsticks and lifted the plate of assorted sushi. She hadn't been lying when she said she ordered way too much.

He smiled at her, "Ladies first…" he motioned with his hand to serve herself first. He was definitely smooth, she thought to herself with that killer smile that was always so full of joy; she liked that about him. It was obvious homicide could have probably been just as disturbing as SVU at times, but it didn't seem to make him in to an unemotional brute like other men she worked with.

She put a few things on her plate and told him to help himself.

He sipped the wine until he was satisfied she had served herself. He put a few bits of sushi on his plate and added some of a crab salad that looked pretty damn good, he thought.

"Thanks for dinner, really… I would have just ended up down at O'Reiley's having a liquid meal and snacking on beer nuts."

Olivia laughed, "I'm pretty much just obsessed with food," she admitted. "I couldn't skip a meal if I wanted to. Are you aware of how hangry women get if they aren't fed and watered regularly?" she joked.

Ed laughed, "Oh _yes,_ I am _well_ aware of the state of hangry, trust me," he nodded.

"It's just for the good of everyone," she told him. "Olivia does not skip meals," she finished.

"I'm sure it can't be that bad… maybe Stabler should eat more," he couldn't help but to jibe.

"It'd make the rest of us a lot happier," she muttered as she took a bite of a tuna roll.

"So… what happened before I clocked off? Did you guys have a fight?"

He sensed immediately he had struck a nerve. She shifted a little uncomfortably in her seat. "I dunno… I just let him get to me…"

"Well, he accused me of doing something to cause you to be mad at him, I let him get to me too… dude started sizing me up."

Olivia's mouth fell open in shock. "Oh jeez, I am _so_ sorry for that. You have nothing to do with that mess, I'm sorry that he involved you."

"No, its fine," Ed replied quickly, "he backed off…I'm not afraid of him, I know his type. He doesn't impress me."

She couldn't help but to smile.

"I was actually more concerned about you, you came in and you seemed upset and dude's first reaction was to accuse me of doing something wrong."

"Elliot just…" she paused, no, she thought, she was done making excuses for him. She was tired of coming to his defense when he was clearly in the wrong.

"He just … instigated an argument, he's one of those people who, when they do the wrong thing, they'll never apologize, they'll act like it never happened and then bring it up later like they were never ever at fault."

Eddie nodded. He couldn't help but to feel protective of her and knew that by her implication, Elliot had done something to hurt her. "So what'd he do?"

"I dunno, Ed, it's… stupid and I don't want to hurt him," she skirted around the issue.

"You don't have to tell me but… it'll stay between you and I, I promise."

She stared in to those gorgeous brown eyes. There was a glint of kindness shining through and she felt her walls slowly coming down as she pulled her eyes away from his and took a gulp of her wine.

"Cragen gave me the news my Mom passed…" she explained, "and they asked me if I wanted to leave for the day but, no…"

"What?" Ed interrupted, "that's your mother, you still stayed at work?"

Olivia laughed self-consciously. "What else would I have been able to do?"

"Go be with your family?" he suggested.

"She _was_ my family," Liv responded pointedly.

"Oh…" Ed got the hint. Being at work would have felt the closest thing possible to being around her family. He understood. It was what she knew and it's how she ran away from her problems, by being a wonder-woman for justice.

"Anyway, at the end of the day Elliot came in while I was collecting my things to leave and he asked me if I wanted to talk, I said no, he kept pushing it, I broke down. He hugged me and I was embarrassed that I was losing it so badly in front of him and then he kissed me-"

"What!" Ed exclaimed, "Your Mom dies and that mother fucker kisses you? Does he not know how to read a room?"

Olivia blinked in to her wine glass. She composed herself and looked back up at him sheepishly. "I made a mistake and kissed him back," she said. Ed went to say something but she cut him off. "I shouldn't have, there was absolutely no excuse. To be fair, I was feeling so alone and just really wanted to feel like someone gave a shit about me…" she added quickly, feeling her cheeks redden with the admission. "And then he pushed _me_ away, walked away looking like the hero and told me it was a bad idea…"

"What the _hell_?"

"It's okay, I feel like I'm a terrible person over it, I'm sure you'll think differently of me but-"

"Are you _kidding?"_ Ed had a smile that betrayed his tone. "I think he's a complete asshole. Lemme tell you somethin' when my daughter died, I didn't fall apart straight away, I fell apart about a year later after my relationship with her Mom did… and grief makes you vulnerable. I slept with a long-time friend that night and I knew it was a bad idea, but I get it, I get that _need_ for someone, it wouldn't have mattered if it was Elliot or a guy you met at a bar, you would have probably reacted the same way…"

She regarded him with a tiny smile. "Thanks for saying that…"

"It's true. I mean it. You were vulnerable. He was totally out of line and then to push you away and act like _you_ did the wrong?" Ed sat back and shook his head in disbelief. "What a jerk…"

"Well… it came up today, we hadn't mentioned it since, but I've found it really uncomfortable to be around him. He referred to it as the incident and asked if that's why I'd been funny with him…. Its like he forgot that he instigated it. I don't think I have a right to be excused for my behavior either, but it didn't happen on my own."

Ed nodded. "You're not in the wrong, Liv, he was inappropriate. I understand that complex relationship between work partners in this job, but you can be a friend and not cross that line…"

"Yeah…" Olivia agreed. She sipped her wine, feeling a lot more relaxed and lighter for getting it off her chest. "Please, _please_ don't repeat what I told you. I have too much respect for his wife and children."

"I promise, you don't have to worry… I'd never jeopardize your trust."

Something about his statement was so firm and absolute. As though she would be able to count on him in that moment but also in the future.

"What about you?" she asked, "you left work and went straight to see Molly?"

He nodded. "I was gonna go home and go to bed… but I thought about her being alone and I just had to see if she was doing okay…"

"You're a good man, Ed Green," she told him. "I've liked working together with you," she told him as he picked up his wine glass. He held it paused in the air and nodded toward it.

"Likewise," he said as he made the motion to cheers their glasses.

"So why are you not home in bed?" she wondered.

Ed thought about it for a moment before deciding to be honest. "I was chatting to Molly's nurse… I was watching her do her IV line and I warned her about pushing the fluid through it too quickly… and then I had to back up and explain that my own daughter used to complain of the feeling when it was too fast…"

"Oh," Olivia listened.

"And anyway, she asked me lots of questions and it went too far, I couldn't after all that explain that my daughter wasn't with us anymore and I found myself having this really odd conversation as if Sadie was still alive… it was weird and uncomfortable and I was already having weird feelings being there with Molly…"

"It must be really hard to be in the hospital with her; triggering…"

Ed nodded slowly. Suddenly a smile caught itself briefly upon his full lips. "And then as I left, the nurse… she bluntly asked me to go for a coffee with her after her shift."

Olivia started to chuckle but couldn't place exactly why it put her out a little. She wasn't surprised, he was incredibly good looking with his smooth cocoa skin and his pretty eyes and even prettier smile. "Wow, that's… forward. So how was it?"

He gave her a quizzical expression. "How was what? The coffee?" he chuckled. "Well, I'm here with you, so…"

It was kind of telling and she knew there was something unspoken there, a tiny little spark; an ember of feeling for him but she batted it away – she didn't really trust her intuition when it came to real life affairs. She was always just a little off-base and felt like she was setting herself up for rejection.

It was pretty much all she knew.

"Isn't that your thing, dating random women?" she said in a way that backed away from the seriousness of his remark. Her tone was teasing, playful. He couldn't help but to smirk as he sipped his wine and moved around a sushi piece with his chopsticks.

The amused smirk dispersed after a few moments as he became a little thoughtful. It was a peaceful silence, not awkward; she was thankful for that calm between them, an understanding of whether or not the other person was being mean or just teasing – it felt like a natural ease, he thought.

"I actually wasn't going to say yes; our conversation earlier today made me kind of… reexamine my ways—it sounds dumb, but I didn't really consider that my behavior could have been seen as disrespectful or inappropriate and I don't _want_ that reputation."

"I didn't really mean to make you feel bad, Eddie, what you do is your business… I think I was just, reacting," she said a little guiltily. She pushed a lock of hair behind her hair, tossing her bangs out of the way. She was thankful they were starting to grow out.

"I know – but it wasn't just you. This whole thing with Molly, it's been making me think about my daughter a lot and if she were here with me today, regardless of if her mother and I made it as a couple, I would never want my daughter to be ashamed of her Dad's behavior…"

Olivia nodded with understanding. "Sadie wouldn't have any reason to feel ashamed of her Dad, he's a good, respectable man."

Eddie let a smile form upon his lips. He gazed at her for a moment and breathed slowly as he sometimes had to do mindfully when he thought about his daughter. He appreciated that Olivia had remembered her name and used it rather than referring to her as a little thing from his past.

"Sometimes," he countered, "but I could do better…" he added. "I already had it in my mind that I would say no to the nurse as soon as it came out of her mouth, but because I'd spent the conversation talking about Sadie in present-tense, she wanted to hear all about her and I almost bolted from the corridor," he managed a chuckle.

Olivia found herself smiling empathetically at him. "I don't really like pushing people to talk about things that they don't want to, but… you can talk about Sadie as much as you want with me, I won't ever get weird or uncomfortable… I might not know what to say, but I'll be honest about that."

Ed was smiling at her. "Thanks Liv, you have no idea how refreshing it is to hear someone be that honest…" he finished. "People say the _dumbest_ shit if I ever bring her up… even family. 'Oh Ed,'" he mimicked another person, "'Remember what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger!'" he shook his head.

Liv widened her eyes in shock. "No…." she added in disbelief.

"'Eddie, God's got plans for you…'" he added, finding himself laughing sarcastically. "Honestly, those people, they're lucky I'm not really a confrontational guy… I know when to walk away before I break."

Olivia appreciated that about him; his sense of calm. He picked his battles. He didn't argue for the sake of it. She thought about earlier in the day when Elliot was taking little stabs at them for being at the hospital. She had reacted, Ed didn't say a single word and didn't show any inkling of annoyance.

"I can't believe someone would be dumb enough to say that. Maybe we are seasoned professionals at giving bad news and knowing that sometimes we can't really say or do anything…" Olivia suggested.

Ed nodded. "But no one has actually ever just been so blunt as to say, 'I probably won't know what to say'", he paraphrased Olivia's comment. "Its just so honest that its perfect, so thank you."

"Sure…" she smiled.

"And the same goes… if you want to talk about your Mom, I won't get weird either. I also probably won't know what to say, but I'll try and we can wallow in grief together if you like," he managed to flash her a smile.

"Thanks Eddie…"

They continued eating in a silence for a short while. Olivia encouraged Ed to help himself to another glass of wine. He could tell that she was a little buzzed because of the redness in her cheeks. It was a little sweet and he had noticed that she was more open and relaxed, though it could have been because they were no longer at work.

"My Mom and I had lunch the day she died," Olivia said finally, "I had a case come in so I had to leave… I was supposed to go back to her apartment with her to change a light bulb of all stupid things, but I was worried about her getting drunk and climbing on a chair and having an accident; so I left but I promised to go over after work…"

"Yeah?" Ed listened, putting his chopsticks down, folding his arms on the table top, giving her his complete and undivided attention.

"As it turned out, she fell down the stairs on the way in to her apartment and she didn't make it…"

"I'm sorry, Liv."

"So yeah," she shrugged and then rolled her shoulders as if trying to rid some of the tension from them. "I'm really mad about it; I should have gone with her and made sure she got home. I knew she was drunk; I could smell it but she kept assuring me she wasn't because that's what functioning alcoholics do."

He nodded. "Liv, I know you think it's your fault or that you somehow could have prevented it, but if we all lived on the 'ifs' in life, none of us would ever be able to just move forward," he said gently.

He saw that her eyes were getting glassy. He wasn't concerned about that; he saw that she was hurting in a similar way to himself. "And she's it? No other family? Siblings? Uncles, aunts?"

Liv shook her head. "I've never met my father… he was…" she licked her lips, daring herself to push the words out of her mouth. "he was her … her… rapist," she stammered.

It suddenly all made sense to Ed. Her need for justice; her emphatic and super-human ability to always advocate for the victim. She wanted to right what had happened to her mother.

"Despite the fact that your Mom had a drinking problem, I would bet money on it that you were the most special thing that ever happened to her after something so terrible or else she wouldn't have chosen to keep you."

Liv nodded pensively. "Despite her inebriation, that lunch was .. really special, she kind of said most of what you did; she rarely said stuff like that, but it was meaningful and I feel robbed that I finally got to how she felt about me after years of thinking she hated me, and then she hits her head and dies… you wouldn't fucking read about it…"

"I'm sorry, Liv…" he apologized. "But it's not your fault and you can at least be at peace knowing how important you were to your Mom. I take that to bed with me every night, understanding that my little girl adored her Daddy…no one can take that away from me."

"I know… just losing people is shit. Its just me now, just me and no one else and I can't tell you how fucked up that feels… and afterwards I so desperately didn't want to be alone and unfortunately Elliot was there…"

"You can't be blamed for that either… he was being a piece of shit, Liv. That was an awful thing to do to you. Does he know about the situation with your Mom and her attacker?"

"Yeah…" Liv's voice trailed off; she felt angry with Elliot for disregarding all of the factors that Ed was pointing out and taking advantage of her and then discarding her like a piece of garbage when she needed someone. She would have _never_ done that to him.

"Yeah, that's a fucked up thing of him to do. I don't want to bad mouth him, really, Liv, I know at the base of it you guys are friends and you care about him, but really it was the wrong thing to do."

Olivia appreciated that he held back. It didn't help to have another person rubbishing a someone she cared for despite his irresponsible behavior.

Ed rubbed the well-kempt goatee on his chin a little self-consciously. "That's what I think, anyway…. For whatever its worth."

"I appreciate it, it's nice to just get it off my chest, I suppose."

They resumed eating dinner. Ed noticed she was enjoying her wine a lot. He didn't mind, he was catching up.

"So… this is a really nice part of town," he remarked, "have you lived here for awhile?"

"Yeah, a couple of years. I think the area makes people think it's going to be fancy but, stock standard apartment with the price tag of something more," she smiled. "Where do you live?"

"Lower east side," he replied, "just outside of Tribeca…"

"Wow, and you think _I'm_ the fat cat of New York," she laughed, "They're obviously paying better down at homicide," she teased.

He laughed. "I know how this is going to sound but… my father left me money so I bought the place that I wanted in the location of New York that I love the most," he explained.

"Ah, it doesn't sound like anything," she shrugged, "you had a loving father who wanted to provide for his son, it's nice. If I ever have kids that would be the end goal," she replied.

Ed had nothing to say to that, given the way things had worked out.

They both chewed on their own thoughts and continued to eat the rest of what was left.

"C'mon…" Olivia nodded at the empty plates, "grab your glass, let's go sit on the couch…" she paused to grab the unopened bottle of wine.

Ed watched her lead him to the soft grey couch. It was kind of small and cozy. He wasn't sure how he'd go in such close proximity to her. She was gorgeous and she looked so much more attractive outside of work with her guard down, looking casual and effortless in her white shirt and gym pants.

She still had her make up on from the day and she kept tossing her hair over her shoulder self-consciously and the sexiest thing about her was that despite being self-conscious, her walls had been lowered and she had a self-assurance about her that he found to be a turn on.

 _Shit_ , he thought, _it's the red wine talking, calm down Ed._

He took a seat and let her fill his glass one last time. It had to be the last drink. Liv flipped the remote over to an old episode of the Twilight Zone.

"Thanks for dinner, I appreciate it…" he told her sipping his wine and placing it down on the coffee table.

"You're welcome," she said, looking a little uncomfortable but he figured she wasn't really used to having anyone in her apartment. "It's nice to have someone to hang out with outside of work….did I say that already?" she said with a funny laugh.

"Its okay, I agree, it _is_ nice to have company…" he turned slightly to face her and he realized how close he was to her. He could smell the scent of florals emanating from her perfume. She smelled sweet and he found it slightly intoxicating.

He placed his arm on the top of the back rest, almost touching her shoulder. "Do you ever have just like a night with some of your girls?"

She smiled almost embarrassed. "Eddie, this job drives away a lot of actual friendships, surely you know that. My only friends are the friends I make on the job…" she replied, gazing in to his eyes. She knew she was staring at him without any shame, but she was past the point of caring.

She realized she had a crush on the detective next to her. He was warm and caring and said all the right things and was basically everything that her partner was not.

She knew he had a reputation and honestly, she knew that his reputation was the only reason why he was at her apartment. She wasn't stupid.

His hand touched her shoulder softly. "We can be friends… I don't have many friends on the job either…" he smiled gently.

She put her wine glass down and crossed her legs and gave him a smile and caught his eyes sweeping over her. She knew it was going to happen as their knees knocked together. She shuffled closer.

"I would like to be friends with you, Detective."

He didn't want to read the vibes wrong but as she neared him he couldn't help but to feel magnetized by her. He let her close most of the gap, not wanting to be accused of reading the signals wrong.

He took both of her shoulders beneath his large hands as her lips pressed against his, their bodies getting closer still, closing the distance between them. He felt her hand on his chest as the softness of her lips lingered against his.

She pulled away for a moment looking slightly alarmed, as if she might have expected him to push her away the way that her partner had.

He pulled her closer again, letting his hands drop from her shoulders to her back, encircling his arms around her, pulling her tightly and securely in to an embrace as he let his lips find hers again, tasting the sweetness of the wine left its traces on her mouth.

She took his cheeks in both of her hands; her touch was warm and inviting and made him feel wanted and relaxed and he knew immediately that she wanted him. There was no mistaking it. He had become good at reading body language.

He let his tongue graze gently against hers, lighting a spark inside her as her arms circled his neck. She may as well have been in his lap. He leaned over her, his presence dominant but not controlling, just the way she liked. It felt protective and given her daily job protecting people, it was nice to have someone return the favour for once.

She liked his gentle but firm grip, his willingness to make her feel wanted and desired; it had been far too long.

She was aware that it was probably a bad idea but after three glasses of wine, her brain didn't give a shit. She felt him easing her backward against the arm of the couch that was pressed against the apartment wall. His kisses were like silk and his tongue was like velvet and he knew just how to kiss softly and then firmly and then barely touching in a way in which made her body respond beneath him.

His body covered hers and she felt as though this was it; it was going to happen and she could kiss goodbye to the friendship that they had started to develop.

She brushed the thought away and concentrated on him and how she would have loved to get that sweater off of him. She felt his hand fall down her arm, resting on her hip as he kissed her with passion and the skill of a man who had been in this situation many times before.

It should have been alarm bells, but instead it just made her desire him more; a man who knew what he was doing was far better than a man who fumbled around second guessing himself.

She let her hands travel to the hem of his sweater, tugging it upward. He broke their kiss briefly and pulled it up over his head. She smiled at him as she was presented with the form exactly as she had expected. Not slim, not solid, just a sexy, hairless, muscular body beneath a white tank.

Olivia smiled at him, letting him know everything was fine. She found herself running her hands along the smoothness of the skin on his arms. He smiled back at her as he resumed the kiss, slowly again, changing his pace.

He made goosebumps rise to the surface of her own skin as he ran his fingers through the hair at the back of her neck. She arched and let a soft moan in to his mouth, slowly but surely losing her self-awareness.

Ed felt reckless and stupid and almost lost his senses. Hearing Olivia's sighs of pleasure should have spurred him on but instead he felt like he was crossing a line that he wasn't sure he could come back from.

He liked her. He knew he liked her, it was evident in the way that he kept thinking of her even when he didn't mean to.

It was weird, he thought, how feelings could develop so quickly. It was just a vibe between them from the second he saw her with the little girl.

The little girl.

He didn't want Olivia to end up like the other woman he'd been with; forgotten and shamelessly moved on from.

He slowed his kisses until they lingered a little too long. He closed his lips and pecked them again gently. He didn't want to pull away, he wanted to keep going. He wanted her to show him to her bedroom and he wanted to show her just how much he cared and just how much she was wanted, but it wasn't right and he knew he needed to do the right thing.

He kissed her briefly again.

He opened his eyes and watched her open hers too; a look of confusion registering on her face. "What's wrong?" she asked in a whisper.

"Just…" he couldn't help but to kiss her again. "I'm… I'm trying to change my behavior…" he murmured. He paused to kiss her again and again and almost recaptured where they had left off. "I don't want to be that guy, Liv… I like you."

"I _want_ you to be that guy," she replied, frustrated. "Ed we don't have to get married, I don't even expect that you have to feel awkward around me tomorrow, it is what it is…"

"I'm trying to be good, Liv…" he said again, "I like you," he repeated. "I don't want to hurt you. I don't want to have that weirdness where… something happened that shouldn't have."

"Eddie…" she said his name but realized there was no point. He had his mind made up. She shimmied out from beneath him. "You should go…" she said immediately. She felt stupid again. "You just told me Elliot did the wrong thing, but you just did the same thing."

"This is not the same thing," he said quickly. "Liv, I want this to happen but I don't want this to happen right _now_ ," he explained, "please don't be mad at me, I am not rejecting you, really… I'm respecting you."

"Funny," she laughed sarcastically, "cos that's exactly how it feels."

She got up and went to her door and held it open. "Goodnight detective."

Ed felt defeated. He put his sweatshirt on and gathered his things and left without another word.

He walked down 89th and headed toward the entry of the subway. He tried to disguise the fact that he was uncomfortable and had a little trouble hiding his arousal on the way down the street and felt a little thankful there weren't very many people out.

He felt terrible. He could see why she felt so let down. He didn't want her to feel bad. He decided to continue walking instead of taking the subway. He needed to clear his mind.

When the walls came down, Olivia was almost a different person. She was warm, chatty and even flirty. He liked her sense of humor, sarcastic and if nothing a little self-deprecating. She was just the right amount of shy and also confident and incredibly capable – the things that he found to be a turn on in a woman.

He knew she was self-reliant enough to never become clingy.

He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair with frustration. Maybe he was caught up because for once he felt comfortable enough to share information about his child – maybe he mixed comfort for attraction.

Maybe Olivia was just looking for a hook up?

He took out his phone and started to write her a text message to apologize and explain himself better. He wasn't sure where to start though, so he locked it again and put it back in his pocket and despite his own place being a long walk home, he just put his head down and kept walking until he arrived home.

The walk had taken him over an hour but he was happy to be feeling tired and emotional by the time he got home. He knew another drink would put him to sleep.

He had a shower and got ready for bed. As he lay his head down he thought about sending a text again. He picked his phone up and opened to see his last interchange with her.

"I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings," he tapped out the message on the on-screen keypad. "I know you think I pushed you away because I didn't want to be with you, but that's exactly the opposite of what I wanted. I don't want to make a mistake with you, I don't want you to think I'm only interested in one thing… I hope that tomorrow we will have a chance to talk and I can explain myself better. I like you a lot, Olivia Benson."

He locked the phone and took a mouthful of whiskey and hoped for the thoughts in his brain to quiet enough for him to be able ot sleep.


End file.
